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alhenderson

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About alhenderson

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  • Location
    Northampton, UK
  • Interests
    Photography, modelling, plane spotting, beer

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  1. Bit late to the party, but.. I built the Hasegawa a couple of years ago. Found the construction of the forward fuselage quite awkward, and needed a fair bit of filling. I guess they've engineered it so that they can get lots of different versions out of it. Anyway, my RFI if its of interest. Al.
  2. Your first model in 30 years was a Sword?? Bloody well done! I think my return to the hobby would have been extremely short if I'd have done that! 😀 She's a beauty though, well done! Al.
  3. Following on from my gloss varnish near miss the other week, I ordered some A Stand aqua gloss, having been recommended it by someone on Twitter. It duly arrived last week and I took some time to test it on my paint mule. Got to say, it's not easy to spray. You don't need to thin it, which I like cos it's one less thing to cock up, but it goes on very wet and it really looks awful to start with. Goes on with a milky finish and gathers in all the crevices. Have tried different air pressures but nothing seems to help it spray smoothly. Fair dues, though, it dries nicely - several goes on the mule proves this. Finally got brave enough to put some on the lightning, just the underside again, learning from past mistakes. You can see how it goes on 😬 trust the process, though, as it's dried just fine (just didn't have my phone on my screen I finally plucked up the courage to check). Think I can gloss the rest then get on with a small amount of weathering... Al
  4. Nice! I'm building that Matchbox one at the moment. Got some pylons and other bits from, I think, a Hasegawa kit. Sadly I don't have drop tanks or a recce pod - where did you get yours from? Al
  5. With the back end smoked up, I took 20 mins this morning to mask up the tail and the rear fuselage and spray Mr Mettalic Aluminium over what remained of the front half of the fingerprint. Was nervous about this (I'm nervous about everything on this Lightning now!) but it went fine: If you look closely you can see where I resprayed, but since these things were far from uniform I don't mind. The top of the fuselage near the jet pipe could do with something now I look at it, though.. Al.
  6. Thanks for the words of encouragement everyone. I left the lightning alone for a couple of days, retrieved her earlier to see what I could do about the fingerprint. Had a go with the little bit of sanding sponge and much to my surprise it came up nicely: You can't really tell it was a fingerprint, almost looks like weathering. Think I'll finish it off with some Tamiya smoke on the back end to better cover it up and do a bit of weathering at the same time. Will probably also mask off and spray a little bit ahead of the dashed black lines to cover up that bit as well. Hopefully not too onerous.. 🤞
  7. Thanks. You are, of course, right. It's just frustrating that I get very little time at the moment and then something like this happens. I'll try and mask off and respray the fingerprint tomorrow, and I have some aqua gloss coming for the rest of it. I think my problem was the use of an alcohol based varnish on top of the alcohol based paint, meaning it reactivated the paint. I'd always thought you should use the same type of varnish as you do paint. Looks like metallics in particular don't like that.. Al
  8. Weather's been really cold here recently, plus we've got builders in so haven't had much chance to progress this. Managed to steal 20 minutes this morning to get a gloss coat on the decals. The Mr Hobby aqueous gloss has had an odd effect: Its made it look a lot more 'grubby', but not really in a good way. Luckily I only did under the wings and then stopped when I realised. I had tried it on my paint mule gnat, but the finish on that is rubbish anyway so would not have noticed. I then must have got thinner or something on my fingers: Its not an exaggeration to say I'm well and truly fed up of this thing now. I might abandon glossing and weathering entirely (wasn't going to go overboard anyway) - I have other gloss varnishes, but have never really used them so don't fancy chancing my arm there. Guess I need to mask off the fingerprint and respray.. FFS. There's a skip on the drive, this might be launched into it.. 😡 Al.
  9. After a lovely weekend away in Barcelona, have had a couple of hours this week to finish off the decals, which leaves us here.. There are a load of stencils left on the sheet, but no idea where they're supposed to go. It's a bit frustrating, the stencil placement plan has a completely different set of panel lines to the kit, which leaves me digging around for photos from various angles. There are also a load of stencils that don't even seem to be mentioned in the instructions 🤷‍♂️ some are for the camo schemes, but it's hard to work out what exactly W Sword have in mind. Still, I'm happy, looks decent. Now I need to transport her to the garage (very carefully!) fit a coat of gloss varnish and I can do some weathering. Not going to go mad, I really need to get this finished and I still have some bits to do like put on the pitot tube and sort out the PE FOD guard. It's been a slog, but fingers crossed the end might be in sight.. 🤞 Al
  10. Pre-shading can do a decent job of giving you a faded effect (at least it does when others do it!). Although as someone mentioned above, the green fading to brown was quite common, see below. Pre-shading's not going to achieve that, though. Maybe some liberal post-shading with a green/brown, well thinned mix? Al.
  11. She's a beauty! I'm just finishing a Sword Lightning and have similar frustrations. The panels depicted on the decal placement instructions don't match the panels on the kit, and I can't even find where a load of the decals on the sheet are supposed to go - not mentioned on the instructions 🤷‍♂️ I'm guessing no-one at Sword ever tries to build their kits! Al
  12. End of weekend update. Got the nose wheel in place, with copious amounts of sprue goo. Doesn't look pretty, but seems fairly solid, here's hoping 🤞 Also have the landing gear doors back on so we're ready to recommence decals 🎉 Al
  13. 3rd attempt at securing the front wheel.. I have drilled a whole in a piece of plastic card but enough for the u/c to slot into, and fashioned that card to slot into the bay in roughly the right position. Hoping that a combination of sprue goo and glue will then hold it in position for the rest of eternity 🤞 Meanwhile, the front landing gear doors have also come off. Not surprising as they were only held on with their tiny locations tabs. These have been sanded off to allow for direct attachment to the fuselage. Will get back to the decals eventually! Al
  14. I can't complain that Sword have not given me my money's worth here! Al.
  15. Another chapter in the lightning T.4 saga (and it's beginning to feel like one!). Made a start with the decals which are going down nicely, just trying to be very careful but to break anything. And just like that... That's the second time the nosewheel has come off. The joint between the plastic and the brass rod is a weak spot. I'm going to try and address this by fashioning a plastic plate to go into the wheel bay that will take the leg - much like @giemme did in his build - I've just got to do it whilst not trashing any decals! The decal placement instructions also leave a lot to be desired. I think there are two sets of stencils - one for the silver machines and one for the grey camo, but they don't tell you which is which. Also, the panel lines shown on the plan don't match those on the kit - I remember that from my sword gannet. Means that I'm having to try and find picture references for the placement, which makes the whole process a lot slower. All part of the modelling fun! Al
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