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opus999

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Everything posted by opus999

  1. Thanks Bill. I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out so far. Can't wait to get insignia on it!
  2. Friday I put a coat of Aqua Gloss on. I always do this by brush because it levels out so well you can't tell it was hand brushed on. I've tried airbrushing it and it's a mess: it either doesn't level out or it runs. So here it is. Not much different than the last picture, which is good! As I mentioned before on Saturday I was putting the stencils on. I was able to do all the fuselage stencils Saturday: I only had a little time tonight and was able to put on the stencils on the top of one wing. So more to come this week.....
  3. Timely response Mark! if you remember the test scrap piece I had a few posts ago.... I was going to mention that I plan to use that to figure out how to make various degrees of worn metal. When I first started using Alclad, I thought I'd start with a base of polished aluminum or airframe aluminum and then add weathering on top of that, finished by a semi-gloss or dull coat. I thought that would mimic how metal appears in real life: with a layer of corrosion and gunk. Somewhere along the way I was tempted with the various shades and flavors of Alclad / AK / Mr. Color, which all seemed to promise a similar look without as much work. Maybe in the hands of some talented people, but not in mine! So I decided to go back to my original thought process and that's what the test scrap piece is for. And then you chimed in with an affirmation of what I was thinking. Excellent timing sir!
  4. Wow Johnny. Truly amazing! This is one seriously beautiful build -- awesome looking aircraft, masterfully rendered. I have to say the "mmmmore bits" bits were making me laugh because I felt your pain. It seems like all the build-ending details are the most tedious and yet are the ones that provide the most realism. Terrific work my friend.
  5. I'm currently putting on stencils. The alcald was covered with a coat of Aqua Gloss, so it is protected, however I am not using any solvent on the decals. The stencils are small and don't need to conform to anything and even though the Alclad is protected, I'm still a little worried about using solvent. I have a couple large decals (on the tail fin) that will need to conform to panel lines. Does anyone think using solvent on these will be OK? I really can't remember if I used decal solvent on my CF-104 or Mohammad Alam builds or not. Of course, I didn't make a note of it. The reason why I am so nervous about this is because I had decals turn black on Alclad, which I'm mostly sure is because of foolishly using chemicals to polish the black base coat. But not 100% sure. Any feelings or experience with this issue?
  6. I'm glad I stumbled on this -- the Vengance fascinates me and this looks like a pretty good kit. I had to laugh when you mentioned Galactica 1980. I think I was just the right age when Battlestar Galactica came out (7) because it was the greatest. show. ever. to me and my friends when it was on. When Galactica '80 came on, I was excited BG was back, but I remember that, even as a kid, I thought it was ridiculous. As an adult, I can look past some of the less-than-stellar episodes of BG (interesting network politics were responsible for those... but that's a different story) and I still get some enjoyment out of it. As an adult, I tried watching G1980 and only barely got through the first 2-part episode.
  7. Thanks Mark! I struggle with NMF... mainly because I find it hard to make it realistic looking. But making an "airshow finish" is a bit of a cheat to avoid any real weathering!
  8. I have to agree... great save and lovely looking blue! You've really got me pondering doing a Hind A myself! (although maybe I should replace the terrible Hind D I did in high school first... 🤔)
  9. up close the brick may be disappointing, but it looks pretty realistic from a distance in the pictures. Looking pretty good so far!
  10. That turned out really well... if any quality was sacrificed, I missed it. My Airfix Swiss build was a similar exercise -- the family was in the midwest and I was alone at home. I didn't make it 24 hours, but it was something like 36, so not too bad. It looks like the exhausts were relatively trouble-free, unlike the Hobby boss 109E's, so I was happy to see that both for your sake (and mine!). Nice work; I'm glad it was a fun challenge.
  11. That's another wonderfully realistic build. I really like the FAA scheme on the Avenger too. Fabulous work!
  12. Hooray! I got the nerve-wracking alclad part done today. I say nerve-wracking because with such a mirror like finish, any minor screw-up becomes a major screw up. As expected it took longer to mask than paint. Here's where I was at after masking: I then proceeded to paint. I had to judge how much to put on before removing the wing panel masks, which was tough. But I guessed and stopped to remove the panel masking: I then went back to painting with broad, even strokes and when I liked the contrast between the wing panels and their surroundings, I stopped. I used a cloth diaper to gently remove the paint dust, removed the masking, and here we are: I'm very happy with how it all turned out so far! I like how the difference between the darker metal and lighter metal is very subtle. As it should be. I could probably apply the aqua gloss at this point and be OK, but I'm going to let it sit until tonight. The Aqua Gloss stage is the next nerve-wracking part....
  13. Events conspired against me so I didn't get any bench time this week. That's OK, though because I wanted to make sure that the black gloss paint was fully cured. I think almost a week might do it! I was really sick today, Covid test came up negative, so it's some other creeping crud, but I felt well enough after sleeping all day to sling a little paint. I used my Mr. Color Stainless Steel to paint the panels around the guns and the tail pipe: The pictures don't quite do it justice. That paint comes out looking very lovely. I then painted some alclad on some scrap I'd prepared last week. I coated the scrap with the Tamiya TS-14 that I used on the model. I decided to test my Airframe aluminum, which I've never tried before, and also put on my polished aluminum for comparison. Talk about a "Wowsa!" moment: That's the airframe aluminum on the left. Its like a mirror. WOW. For comparison, here is the polished aluminum: Sill looks pretty nice in its own right. Interesting thing about the polished aluminum, it starts out with a very crisp reflection, almost like the airframe aluminum, but the more you put on, the more muddled the reflection gets. To a point. I noticed that after a while the reflection wasn't changing and that's what you see in the picture above. I toyed with the idea of using the airframe aluminum on the Sabre, but it almost seemed over-the-top. I mean, it would look really cool, but seems a little too much. So I used the polished aluminum and painted the drop tanks. I think they turned out nice. I was starting to feel under the weather again and decided to stop. Next up, I need to mask some panels and then I can paint the polished aluminum on the body of the aircraft. The masking will probably take longer than the painting.
  14. These are terrific! I like the Helldiver-- it's an interesting bird even if it wasn't well received by its pilots. You did a great job on them.
  15. They look about right for an aircraft that's seen a few missions, just going by pictures I've seen of other Navy birds of the era. That's an unqualified opinion without looking at any reference photos. In short... it doesn't stand out.
  16. Wow, I'm really late to the party. How did I miss this? Well, it looks fantastic at this point!
  17. That's some serious masking there. I'm getting excited to see the camo!
  18. That's strange and disappointing about the dark earth paint. It turned out looking very nice in the end though -- a nice companion to @stevehnz's Buffalo build!
  19. I think the painted-over insignia and lettering are going to look fine. That was a great catch on @Corsairfoxfouruncle's part and it will really add to the finished product. Nice work!
  20. I was able to put on a nice thick coat of Mr. Surfacer 1500 on late friday night, followed by the green anti-glare in front of the cockpit. I realize I made a mistake with the anti-glare. I thought I should do it first because masking over the "shiny" alclads (polished aluminum, etc.) is a bad idea because the tape mars the finish. I realized today that I will be gloss coating it with aqua-gloss, which I can mask over and paint with no problems. Right now I run a real risk of a ledge in the paint where the tape is. I'll have to see... there may be a little reworking in my future. I wanted to spray on the gloss black undercoat on yesterday morning before going to the Pinewood derby set-up, and had the airbrush loaded up and was ready to go when I realized I hadn't sanded the Mr. Surfacer. My experience with the Bearcat was that sanding the Mr. Surfacer 1500 with micromesh help me achieve a gloss finish much more easily. So, I had to clean up the airbrush and then I sanded the surface using progressively finer mesh to 12000 grit. The Pinewood derby set up was finished about an hour early, which gave me about 45 minutes to paint the gloss black under coat. It went well except for two problems. 1) it seems I am doomed to drop a wet sabre during the gloss black painting phase. It happened with my Mohammed Alam build and it happened yesterday. I didn't really drop it, I had it on a stick in a clamp while I was reloading the airbrush and it tipped over. Luckily only the tail touched the edge of the desk and so the paint was messed up there, but that was easily fixed later. 2) I forgot from my B-57 build that too much leveling thinner sprayed neat on the surface of Black paint will turn it a fascinating iridescent dark gray. That also goes for adding too much leveling thinner to the paint as well (I'm using Tamiya spray gloss black decanted into the airbrush). Spraying straight leveling thinner on the surface helps it level out and gives a smooth glassy finish. You just have to spray it lightly. Which I forgot, so it had the most fascinating pattern of dark gray and black -- which I forgot to take a picture of. Last night after all the activities were done, I went to examine the paint and found it wasn't glossy enough yet. Which was fine since I was going to paint it again to make it pure black instead of grey and black. This time I took it easy mixing in the thinner and made sure to spray the thinner on top of the paint surface in fine mists. Here's what it looks like today: I think I am happy with that. I'm dying to hit it with the Alclad, but I'm going to wait for a few days. The reason why is because last night when I was sanding the blemished tail, I found a fingerprint in the paint where I was holding it. It looked like an oily fingerprint, which surprised me since I had just washed my hands. when I used soap and water to clean it off, I discovered it wasn't oil, but an extremely shallow imprint of my fingerprint in the paint. That means that while the paint was dry to the touch, prolonged pressure through holding it would deform the paint. I buffed that out before I put on the final coat. The paint has to be completely dried and cured because I will be handling it to mask before painting. There will be some black areas to mask, but I will also use the technique I used on the Mohammed Alam build to create different shades of metal. If you mask over an area you want to be a little darker metal, then paint a few coats of a "shiny" Alclad, you can then remove the masking and continue to paint and those panels will be slightly darker than their surroundings. You can decrease the degree of contrast by adding more layers of paint. This works because the shiny alclads are slightly transparent. I liked it because it made a subtle difference and that's what I need for a well-maintained airshow finish. So I will try my best to resist and try not to do the masking and painting until at least Wednesday. It ought to be completely dried and cured by then. 🤞
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