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KLP Publishing

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  1. Gloss coating done: I used Alclad's Aqua Gloss, which I generally reserve for those occasions where I'm concerned that a solvent-based clear coat might affect the decals - which is the case whenever they're laser-printed, like here. I'll leave this for at least 48 hours now, before going anywhere near it with masking tape! I've also discovered some errors and omissions, some of which I also plan to attend to. The most visible one is that I got the colour of the engine pylons wrong. I assumed they'd be white like the engines themselves, but they are in fact the same light grey as the wings, so I'll be attempting to correct that, at least. Kev
  2. Happily, the FCD Coroguard decals came off without much trouble at all: The next step is to give the entire model a couple of liberal gloss coats to protect the existing decals and paint work, and then it's on to some tedious masking... Stay tuned! Kev
  3. These Coroguard decals are going to have to come off, unfortunately: They're like that all the way along, on both wings. They reacted badly to Microsol, and no attempt to fix them has yielded any results. The uppers aren't in great shape either, and haven't even had any Microsol yet. I had exactly this issue with this same decal brand (Flying Colors Decals) on a 767 build from 10+ years ago, so never again. I'll strip them off and mask and paint them. And sadly, I'd already applied the underwing registration discussed earlier, so it looks like that will be wasted, too. Quite bummed about this, as it was all going quite well until this point. But then, it isn't really one of my builds until something like this happens... On the upside, the decals on the bottom are out of position anyway, and not necessarily a very convincing colour. But what to paint them with? Kev
  4. Awesome! Thanks for that. Tom Probert also confirmed this position for me, but it's nice to have a photograph of it. Kev
  5. And here's the promised update! Decalling done on Ed Force One: I've taken the photos against both a white and a charcoal background, since each offers a slightly different perspective on the model. The only decals left are a pair of stencils for the nose wheel doors, and a registration decal whose placement I can't determine: My best guess is that it's supposed to go under the outboard end of the starboard wing, but I can't find a single photo that confirms this, so will probably just leave it off. Just need to deal with all the wrinkling now! But very happy with the way this is turning out. Kev
  6. Fairly racing ahead with this one now! I gave in to angst and gave the fuselage another coat of neat SMS White, painted the engine and APU exhaust areas, and pulled off all the masking tape: I ended up spraying the entire tail silver, so that I didn't have to guess where the leading edge demarcation should be, and the decals would have a uniform colour under them. Of course, I didn't then mask the entire tail, so I ended up with white patches anyway. I then proceed to get as many decals on as my evening would allow, starting with those tail decals. I figured that if they failed me, then I could reprint them from the scans I took, but happily, this was not required. As it happens, though, the decals themselves are printed on a continuous sheet without any white (probably laser printed), so the tail decal really needed to be laid down over a white background. Too late, she cried! And a different angle against a white background: I'm really pleased with how it's turning out. The windscreen decal is from the Authentic Airliners Decals "3D" set, but I've decided I probably won't use the cabin windows from that set, as the fuselage will already be quite busy once all the decals are on, and the windows that come with the Ed Force One set actually look pretty good. I'm hoping to get all the decals on for the next update. Stay tuned! Kev
  7. Indeed they do, Ray. Unfortunately both my bottles have a very obvious beige tint, which I can't explain, but is evident on the wings of my MD-80 build: For the first layer of colour on the wings of the 757, I mixed a bit of this beige Boeing Grey in with the Light Grey, but it didn't shift the colour appreciably, so I went with straight light grey for the second coat. Kev
  8. A quick update, as this build finally makes it to the painting stage! SMS Light Grey on the wings and tailplanes: The strong studio lights make it look basically white, but it should have enough contrast with the white on the fuselage when it goes down - which will happen after the silver bits! Kev
  9. Engine repairs completed, though I might still need to do some work around the pylon/engine interfaces: Creeping ever closer to the painting stage! Got some Flying Colors coroguard decals to assist: Kev
  10. Well, I'd hoped that I could report back with glowing news about progress with this one - particularly regarding a successful fix for the engine angles. But it turns out that my decision to do it after installation was not the best one, and there's a reason most people attend to it first. For a start, the wing root on the inboard side of each engine is in the way of making a clean cut where I wanted it to go, so this was a bit of a struggle. I also had to cut much further into the pylon than I wanted to in order to elicit any movement from it. But I got there in the end, shimmed the gap with styrene, and bogged it all up with Milliput: Or so I thought! A couple of minutes into sanding back the Milliput, this happened: At least the other side survived! That's enough to ruin your best pair of undies. So after some swearing and half a tube of CA, I managed to get it back in place: I also think it's now pointing a little high again, but better than OOB. I guess I'm just going to have to treat this area as fragile from now on. Hopefully that mess will clean up OK. Stay tuned to find out! Kev
  11. Time for another update! I took the RB211 engines that my friend Ray Seppala sent me, thinned out the intakes a little, and then installed them onto the wings. This was followed by a light coat of primer to see where things were at: It actually doesn't look too bad! Earlier, I'd used Tamiya epoxy putty to blend in the forward wing roots and make them look like some semblance of the real thing. Still a bit of work to do there, however: The other thing that this kit is infamous for, is the upward rake of the engines once installed: I've read about various ways to fix this - most of them prior to installation, but I felt I needed to install them first, so I could assess the problem properly, and correct it against some fixed datum points. It actually doesn't look too bad at first glance, but the giveaway is that the fronts of the engine intakes are perpendicular to the ground, whereas they should be sloping rearward from top to bottom. My plan is to make strategic cuts to the pylon just forward of the wing leading edge, and then shim them with styrene stock. Wish me luck! Kev
  12. Build Guide Series No. 8, Building the Special Hobby Tempest Mk V in 1/32 Scale, turns 3 today. And to celebrate, for the next 7 days, we’ve reduced the price to a mere 12 Australian dollars! In this 227-page eBook, Chuck Sawyer undertakes a forensic examination of the Special Hobby 1/32 scale Hawker Tempest Mk V kit, combining it with the Barracuda Studios resin nose upgrade set to produce a stunning model. He leads you through all the pitfalls of construction, and of integrating the resin nose and propellor into the kit. We’ve included tutorials on decanting spray cans for airbrushing, achieving a flawless, high-gloss base coat, and working with HGW’s Wet Transfer decals. So, head over to our webstore and grab yourself a bargain! Kev
  13. I just wanted to take a moment to remind everyone to remember to download the books you purchase from us here at KLP Publishing. I’m currently sitting on a list of 15 customers who have failed to download their purchases for some reason over the past several months. I’ve reached out to each of you twice via email, using the email address supplied in your order—once from my KLP email address, and once again using a Gmail account. If you didn’t receive your order confirmation email containing the download links, or either of the follow-up emails, please contact me and we’ll sort it out. If you’re simply not sure of the download process, I’ve written a handy guide that should answer any of your questions: https://www.klp.com.au/2017/12/06/purchasing-downloading-our-books/ As outlined in that article, if you created (or were logged into) an account while making the purchase, then the books will always be available from the Downloads section of your profile. Occasionally a customer will make a purchase without understanding that all our books are digital-only, and will quietly sit and wait for something to arrive in the post. While this is unfortunate, and a refund is available upon request (provided the books have not already been downloaded), most are happy to download the digital book once they realise their mistake. However, if you’re in this boat yourself, and now can’t find a download link, please contact me and we’ll rectify the situation. If you’re not sure if this situation applies to you, or have any other questions, simple reach out through whatever channel suits you best (email, Facebook, Instagram or on the website), and I’ll do what I can to resolve the issue. Kev
  14. I’m pleased to announce that we’ve just added a brand-new 28-page Walkaround section to Building the Airfix Buccaneer S.2C in 1/48 Scale, and thus released a Version 2.0 update! These photos, taken by Tony Patrickson of Anbarún Models, feature Buccaneer S.2 XV361 at the Ulster Aviation Society museum in Northern Ireland. To celebrate this momentous occasion, for the next 7 days, we’ve also reduced the price to a mere 12 Australian dollars! The discounted price ends at midnight, Monday 26 February 2024, AEDT. In this 116-page eBook, renowned UK modeller Geoff Coughlin takes you through the building and painting of this new kit. Along with Geoff’s terrific build, we’ve also included some colour profiles by Simon Hill, an overview of the kit itself, and a set of ordnance-related bonus photos—and a brand-new Walkaround section. This a free update for all existing purchasers, and of course new purchasers will always receive the latest version of any of our books. In order to obtain your free update, simply re-download the book using either the original download link in your Order Confirmation email, or log in to your KLP account and download it from the Downloads section of your profile. If you don’t have either, please contact me and we’ll sort it out. Kev
  15. OK, so the tail decals don't fit the Welsh kit at all - probably even less so than here. I broke out my V1 Decals for the later livery - also allegedly designed for the Minicraft kit - and had much better luck: A little short at the bottom, but I can live with that, so I'll be switching to this livery. That leaves me with set of "Somewhere in Time" decals that I can't currently use, which is frustrating. I'm thinking I might take my hi-res scan of those decals, adjust it to fit the Welsh tail, and reprint them (just the tails) on decal paper. Worth a try, anyway. Kev
  16. A bit of a longer update, this one - the end of which leaves the viability of the project hanging in the balance! My next move after the last update was to fix the awful leading edges of the tailplanes at their roots: They're bulbous, blocky, and don't blend into the fuselage at all. Here's my best attempt to fix them, and comparison of the two: Still not perfect, but a bit of filler should take care of the rest. I then moved to tackling the fuselage seams. I started by filling the cut-outs I made with stretched sprue, before laying down a bead of black rubberised CA along all the joins: I also did two of the three cabin doors on each side, as they're situated too low: Here's a close-up of the kit's abysmal wing root fairing: And the real thing: Ugh. Now comes the coup de gras. Since the point of tackling this awful kit was so I could put some cool Iron Maiden stickers on it, I thought I'd better check that they fit. They're home-produced decals, and I was assured by the vendor that they were designed for this Minicraft kit. But hey, if only life were that simple: And if you're thinking, well at least it seems OK at the front, think again: Doesn't look like a "designed to fit" scenario to me. Now, I know that the Minicraft tail is inaccurate in shape, and perhaps the tail decals are scale accurate in that regard. But that just means that I was initially misled when purchasing these decals, and also can't use them on this build. Thank heavens I stopped to check! So, where to now? As I see it, these are my options: Revert to the kit livery and finish the model; Bin the whole thing as a bad idea; Modify the tail decals to fit the kit tail, potentially distorting the iconic design; Modify the kit tail to match the decals, potentially creating worse accuracy issues. I don't have the Zvezda kit, but I do have the Welsh Models 757, so I'm going to drag it out and check the decals against it. If they fit better, than I'll probably pass them onto that build and do something else here. That would be the neatest solution, even if I'm not particularly interested in the Northwest livery that comes with the kit. And anyone who knows me will realise that #2 is just not an option. I'm not keen on #3, and #4 seems like a lot of work for a kit that really isn't worth it. So it's probably going to be Option #1, and I'll just have to see if I can use the Iron Maiden decals elsewhere. There is one more option that I just thought of: I also have decals from another manufacturer for the later "Final Frontier" tour livery, so perhaps I should see if they fit better. I'll be back later with the results of those fit tests. Stay tuned! Kev
  17. Thanks, Paul! Things aren't going so swimmingly with the Minicraft 757 unfortunately - but this was not unexpected. Kev
  18. A little more progress. I've got the wings fixed in place, and sadly there's still a small lean to starboard, as evidenced by the vertical fin: This is making the port wing tip sit too high. Not sure if this is better (or even different) than I would have achieved without the mods, but it's done now. I might be able to modify the landing gear to compensate, but I won't lose any sleep over it. Once I get the tailplanes on, I'll set about turning this thing into a putty monster! Kev
  19. Get to it, Ray! And many thanks once again for those engines. Unless you've already done it, I believe I have to modify the pylons to allow them to sit parallel to the ground, rather than point upwards. But first, let's see how I go with the wings... Kev
  20. Upon returning to the build, I knew my first challenge would be sorting out the infamously asymmetrical wing attachments on this kit. I pondered this for quite a while, checking out every build I could to see how other modellers dealt with it (or not). And then I had an epiphany! But first, here's a quick demonstration of the differences in each wing root. First, a couple of photos showing how ropey the cut-outs are: Next, measuring from the marked panel line to the top of the front part of the cut-out. Port side: And starboard side: So there's nearly a full millimetre's difference in height, assuming that the panel line is in the same place on each side. During my various test fitting experiments, I noticed that if you slide and clamp the wing prongs together outside of the fuselage, they actually lock together rather nicely, and provide what looks like correct and symmetrical dihedral. It's only when you try to do this inside the fuselage that it all gets messed up, exacerbated by the different positions of the wing roots. Rather than fiddle with the cut-outs on each side trying to even them up somehow, I figured if I could just take this version of the wing assembly and slide it up into place, I could adjust the position on each side to ensure they were even, with the dihedral and asymmetry issues already taken care of. So I decided to remove that section of the fuselage that prevents this from being possible: The wings are now glued up, taking care to ensure that the correct width exists between them front and back to allow them to slip into place without any undue gaps. Somewhere, someone mentioned in passing that the tailplanes were also asymmetrical, but mine seemed to be OK as far as position was concerned. However, they were each doing their own thing when it came to their own dihedral: After removing some material from the connecting tab on the port stabiliser, I was able to get it close to even: Not perfect, but certainly good enough. The tailplanes themselves were also plagued by some sink marks and a generally uneven surface, to I marked the worst of it with a permanent marker, ready for sanding: And this is more or less where we are today. I'm not out of the woods yet with the wings, but at least I have a plan. Let's see how it goes! Kev
  21. I started this one a couple of years ago as part of a larger series of airliner builds, but stalled out pretty quickly. After recently finishing the Minicraft DC-4 that was part of that series, I decided to drag this one back onto the workbench and kick it down the road. I think I've read just about every review and build thread of this kit on the Internet in the last few days! Here's what I started with: As the title suggests, I'm planning to turn this into Ed Force One, using laser printed decals from Babibi Model (the protective paper is still on the sheet here): I also have some "3D" window decals from Authentic Airliners Decals, which should help spice things up a bit: I'm just hoping they overlay the Babibi ones nicely. I also received a set of what I'm hoping are the correct engines from my friend Ray Seppala, who I believe is known in these parts: This is how I received them, so obviously he'd done a bit of work to them. I assume they're Minicraft parts from a different kit, but I'm really not sure. They do look like they're resin, however. 🤔 So, let's begin the build! Many airliner models are moulded in white plastic for some reason, and Minicraft is especially fond of doing this. This plastic has an issue with translucency, so whenever I come across this situation, the first thing I do is paint the insides of the fuselage halves in flat black: This provides some pretty effective light blocking, and the main benefit of that is that you require less paint on the outside of the model to achieve the same result. Here's a demonstration of the problem, and the effectiveness of the solution: Note that I seldom bother giving the wings this kind of treatment. I tend to prefer decals for windows in this scale, as they provide a better scale effect, and I don't have to worry about alignment issues with other elements of the livery. It also makes the build go quicker, so the only thing I needed to do before closing up the fuselage halves is add some weight to the nose. My method might surprise you! See below: After having multiple problems with using lead weights in combination with CA glue to attach them (everything from the weights breaking loose to nasty thermo-chemical reactions melting the plastic and discolouring the paint work), I found myself experimenting Blu-tack, of all things. It turned out to be remarkably effective, with more reliability than CA and none of its problems. Take a healthy section of Blu-Tack and press it into the inside of the forward fuselage, and then press into that some lead weights of the appropriate size and shape - I'm using fishing sinkers in this example: You'll note the length of Blu-Tack trailing out to the rear; this is to wrap around the exposed portions of the weights, and performs 2 functions: firstly, it secures them more firmly and prevents any movement; and secondly, it encases the lead so that it can't negatively interact with any of the surrounding material: Now all you have to do is repeat the process with the other fuselage half, and you're good to go: If done properly, this absolutely won't move, and won't cause any thermo-chemical issues, either immediately or down the track. The breakdown of this kit allows me to leave the cockpit/windscreen section off until I'm happy that there's enough weight in there. It's also very easy to add more if I decide I need to. And this is how I left things 2 years ago: More soon! Kev
  22. I’m pleased to announce that Building the British Phantoms Volume Three: The F-4J(UK) in RAF Service has just been updated to v1.2. And to celebrate, for the next 7 days, we’ve reduced the price to just 18 Australian dollars! It turns out that 2 images somehow didn’t survive the final packaging process for the book, and were in fact missing! This has now been rectified. This update is therefore considered an important one that restores missing content, and should not be skipped. This a free update for all existing purchasers, and of course new purchasers will always receive the latest version of any of our books. In order to obtain your free update, simply re-download the book using either the original download link in your Order Confirmation email, or log in to your KLP account and download it from the Downloads section of your profile. If you don’t have either, please contact me and we’ll sort it out. Kev
  23. I’m pleased to announce that our recent Build Guide, Building the Trumpeter P-47D Razorback in 1/32 Scale, has now been updated to v1.2! Thanks to Fred Bachofner, we’ve been able to add many new titles to the References appendix at the end of the book. In this 322-page eBook, John Kim tackles the Trumpeter 1/32 P-47D “Razorback” kit, combining it with a small selection of aftermarket items to turn it into a masterpiece. Expertly built and masterfully weathered, John’s build is full of tips and tricks to get the best out of this model. The result is a stunning model that is both instructive and inspirational. This a free update for all existing purchasers, and of course new purchasers will always receive the latest version of any of our books. In order to obtain your free update, simply re-download the book using either the original download link in your Order Confirmation email, or log in to your KLP account and download it from the Downloads section of your profile. If you don’t have either, please contact me and we’ll sort it out. Kev
  24. Thanks, Ian. SMS paints are my go-to whenever they have the colour I need. They're airbrush-ready acrylic lacquers and made locally here in Australia. I usually thin them a bit more though, as they're not as thin as MRP, for example. I believe they're distributed in the UK by Albion Alloys. As for the Minicraft 757, well, I have Iron Maiden decals sized to fit it, so I'm a bit locked in in that respect. Plus, I'll happily attempt any kit once! My other 757 is a Welsh vacform... Kev
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