Scargsy

Finally a KUTA build with wings from me - a FW 189, ICM kit. Another oh so close build, It needs some masking/painting to do the yellow areas on the body/under-wings, decals, the props and various other minor bits attaching. Let's hope that texture on the wings is mainly dust and those glazing masks come off without too much damage!

Tamiya 1/24 Alpine-Renault A442B Turbo, Le Mans winner 1978. An old kit (complete with motor!), Shunko replacement decals. Build thread here.

A little bit of weekend work and I can call this one done! After a coat of semi-gloss (Mr Hobby rattle can), it was a case of just adding a few of the finishing touches. The headlights aren't clear parts but chromed, I wanted to keep this but paint the surrounds so added some Krystal Klear over the lenses then stripped the chrome. However one thing I hadn't counted on is that the bleach would react - this ended up making the clear go cloudy, however it was a simple job to wipe it off after I'd washed the bleach off (luckily) so it acted as a sacrificial layer and kept the chrome bright underneath. One annoyance I have is that it wasn't until I'd got to decaling that I realized that in the Le Mans race the front sets of vents were actually covered (I'm not sure what with, but in the photos it looks like the rear portions were secured with duct tape! The actual after market decals do come with something to simulate it, though it would be a bit late to try and fill them! The semi-windscreen (if you can call it that with a hole at the front and top) has a slightly opaque section at the top - it's hard from the photos of the real car to work out if it was like this or painted (I think it may have been painted later in its lifetime) but I really wasn't confident enough in my masking skills to attempt it. Anyhow it's finished finally, maybe a bit rough around the edges (and the masked parts) but the black lines do help draw the eye away from the worse parts).

I managed to get a bit of weekend build time... The fuel filler flaps were painted and added before I gave the shell a coat of Mr Hobby rattle can semi-gloss. It might be a little too dull now for my taste (I wonder if it's possible to mix gloss and semi-gloss to get a custom shine). Clear parts were added to the shell and the interior is now all assembled up - ready for connection. Almost there - just a few bits left to add (lights, wing mirrors, door handles, ariel, engine shutoff, wipers, etc. There are a couple of rubber hoses in the engine bay I only connected one side of (they mount from the under side of the engine bay) but I doubt they will look too bad. I also had an issue that the rear window doesn't fit as deeply as I expected and I should have really run a bit more black up to the bottom edge (annoyingly there's quite a wide strip of blue body paint behind it). No major issues in these steps but one nice touch is that the kit provides some sun visors - though good luck seeing them behind that giant sun-strip given they're folded up and painted black against a black roof! The mud flaps are suggested to be painted blue in the body colour, I did have a go doing it with brush painting but they're a bit streaky (lacquer paint isn't great for brush) though hopefully I can weather them a bit to look like dirt. I gave them an over-coat with some thin electric blue water based paint which has given them a nice sheen.

So over the Christmas holidays I managed to get the decals on, I did break a few of the fine lines but luckily the Shunko decals include a few spare corners and straights - though it was very tricky to use them for the curve section I'd broken on the front wing, although the curves were quite gentle so in the end I did manage it by breaking the straight extra section into a few smaller sections. With them all in place I decided it would be best to get them sealed in, so I decided to go for a 2k clear coat - for this I used some Ammo Mig Cobra for the first time, I have to say it seemed to go on well (other than the usual dust magnet that clear coats seem to be). The 2k is somewhat different to the rest of their range (I'm not sure if they are alcohol based) but I will try them at some point. It did seem to take a little longer than standard 2k to dry off but this might just be a temperature thing given the time of year. I finished off the interior/chassis too, I did test the motor which still seems to work, though the batteries do somewhat force out the sides of tub but I'm doubtful I'll be racing it across the floor! The wheels I stripped the original chrome off with some thick bleach, it turns out they were made of semi-translucent plastic! With them stripped I applied some Mr Color Ueno gloss black followed by some Xtreme Metal Aluminium. Then clear coated with some Gauzy Agent - that is water based so it turned out to be quite easy to overdo it (with it running) but it seemed to have self levelled OK (I made sure lie them flat so I wouldn't end up with a thick lump on one side of the wheel where it was running). Finally I used some panel liner to fill the parts between the 'spokes'. The driver had some helmet decals on the original Tamiya sheet (though not the replacement ones) I did give them a try but unfortunately they were past using! The next job is to try sand the worst of the dust and lumps out of the clear and then I think I'll give it a coat of semi-gloss as it's a bit too shiny for my liking, almost there!

So my shelf of shame is getting a bit busy, a change of job and various other factors seem to have reduced my ability to get things fixed together. This is my entry (there are more to come for the GB, if I can get the time). I originally started it in the classic Japanese GB, thread here: Alpine Renault A442B Turbo - Big In Japan - Classic Japanese Kits GB - Britmodeller.com The kit is a pretty simple affair but seems to have been fighting me all through the build. The kit supplied decals have seriously yellowed over the years, though are actually usable (if a bit brittle), the aftermarket ones however had their own issues - firstly they didn't supply the larger area ones (for some of the white areas and black ones) and the white decals are somewhat less than opaque - especially on the bright yellow background. I used the kit decals for the black areas, decided to overpaint the logos (badly) and will attach the decals on top. The actual areas I masked seemed to come out relatively well (the large white areas at the front and rear) - though it was a bit of a struggle initially getting enough white primer and gloss white on to cover the kit plastic yellow, only to overcoat most of it with yellow! I should have masked up and airbrushed the black too, and done the smaller areas in white in hindsight. Here's a shot of the side, showing just how badly my brush painted black bits are on the sills, also the difference in colour between the white areas - the lower left one is just the kit decal (and appears to have a bit of a weird yellow/orange tint) - the other two however, I'd come up with a cunning plan.. As you may have noticed in the previous image there is a small piece of paper at the front. I used my scanner/printer to effectively photocopy the decal sheet - this can then be transferred (using masking tape, which takes up the print) to the backing of some white decal sheet, cut to size (slightly smaller to fit inside the black border) and applied as a second layer of white! The decal film sheet itself isn't completely opaque but together they do a good enough job. You can use the inkjet to print directly onto the other side of the decal film (I did try this) however I guess because the film is plastic and non-absorbent the ink never seems to dry and easily smudges - not a problem in my case as I was cutting off the exterior print and not needing an actual pattern. The reverse image method (on the back side) seems better as I don't need to worry about the masking tape ripping the film and it gets discarded when you water slide the backing off - for my needs it's fine as the decals are pretty much mirrored left/right on the car. Other than the white translucency the aftermarket Shunko decals have given me other issues - they supply the black stripes to go around the white areas painted which have been somewhat of a PITA as they are thin and prone to snapping but on the bright side they do distract the eye/cover any minor mistakes on the masking. In hindsight I should have probably just placed all the original Tamiya decals on and then over applied the aftermarket ones for most of the white areas (I did that for the decals on the air scoop and I think it looks fine). There is a reason some kits end up never getting finished but I'm hopeful I can at least get to the point of calling this one done, even if it has tested me along the way!

As mentioned brittle (but possibly less brittle than cast resin), I find clear printed resin to be particularly brittle. It sands well but you should take precautions as like all resin it's potentially toxic if inhaled (I wet sand to keep the dust down).

I've just recently got a Mars 4 (not the ultra) - the build plate is the same size but it doesn't fit securely in the Mercury wash station - but then it's slightly larger than the Mars 3 plate (which I think snuggly fits). I don't find it a huge issue, but I guess it depends what you're printing. You can place the whole plate into the basket (e.g. with the knob at the bottom and the plate at an angle) but it's annoying you can't neatly sit it on the lip. Possibly you could manufacture some kind of support plates to snuggly fit it horizontally? I dare say they might come out with a new metal frame for it in future. I usually remove my parts before washing though.

I'm still new to it (and 3D printing) but it does have some neat features (and also some annoying quirks) Positives: There are boolean operations built in (so I can add a box for example, scale it, move it, then use that to 'cut out' a section of my model) - this is far nicer than say using MeshMixer (which seems to modify the geometry in ways I don't want) - I'm into 1/24 scale cars so being able to cut out air intakes, etc. on models is handy. You can export the STL files (I'm not sure if all such software does this but it's handy for me to do the above edits, then export to import into another slicer). On the negative sides: It's a bit of a pain using with a mouse-pad (on my laptop) - yes I should just plug in a mouse. When I rescale items it seems to want to stick them back at z=0 (build plate) I haven't figured out a way to do auto supports AND add additional manual ones (Chitubox seems easier to handle that in).

No worries - don't stress and enjoy your build, we have got a small extension on the GB though, if that helps

So most of the window masks are now on... Hopefully I can get this one finished by the deadline!

So with the finish line fast approaching I'm hoping I can get this one done... Firstly I gave the main parts another coat of paint with a lighter mix of the brown primer and dark yellow. I managed to get the engine and gearbox attached into the body with a bit of wiggling. I left of some of the detailing parts for the engine (fluid boxes, etc.) and didn't bother doing any detail painting as this will be sealed up and not visible. Getting the chassis attached to the body with the drive shafts in place was a far more difficult, with a lot of wiggling and swearing, in the end I had to cut down one of the shafts but it's hidden behind a chassis cross beam. I also had to cut the exhaust and tape the silencer back onto the chassis during this, before rejoining the front part once the chassis was attached. Next it's onto getting everything put together before the final paint coat, I added some masking of the pre-painted seat with clingfilm and tape - hopefully I'll be able to easily remove this post the paint coat. I continued adding the detail parts (grill, etc.) the PE headlight grills are going to be a pain to bend and I'll need to attach them as a final point post adding the headlights.

Sure - I imagine if the people want a weeks extension then it couldn't hurt , unless anyone has an objection?

Maybe @Col. knows how we go about extending things? I haven't got a clue, still trying to do some rush finishing on my two builds and see if I can get them over the line!

Best of luck, I've still got two kits on the go!

So I finally got started on this one! Initial construction went smoothly, building up some sub-assemblies... A few minor issues - the control surface parts are incorrectly labelled in the instructions and the boom parts which have ribs are badly attached to the sprue, making clean-up difficult (not easy to sand them flat as the attachment point goes over both the raised and flat parts). Most of (if not all) the control surfaces are separate so can be modelled in whatever position you like, fit of parts is generally good though the control surfaces under the rear of the main body seem to have a large gap between them which looks like it could be wrong? So I decided to build it wheels up, in flight - thankfully the wheel well doors fit pretty nicely - though as you can see above I added some offcut sprue pieces to help strengthen the join. The rear wheel well / tail, I needed to cut down the articulating door length slightly as well as 'straighten' it by scoring along the join a few times first. The gear leg I did need to remove but it won't be visible. A little filler will be needed, but overall not too much work. I fitted some of the Eduard PE set, though I may have used a bit of artistic license (though I doubt any will be visible when finished). The pilots belts were a little long for the kit seat, but I didn't fancy bending up / building the PE one, so I cut them down slightly. There were also some extra PE belts I omitted - one to fit horizontally across the rear for the tail gunner and another to fit across the between the pilot/front section, though annoyingly they are only colourised one one side. I fitted the engines, booms and wings - one complaint I have is the mounting points seem a little small/flimsy. The booms mounting did have some gaps to fill. I filled using Mr Hobby dissolved putty and cleaning up with IPA - I think it's worked quite well (first time trying this method). The gaps at the rear of the engine cowlings - I'm not sure if they need filling or not, possibly they would be there for cooling? Overall I think the main parts have gone together well, though I've noticed one of the vertical stabilisers is erm - less than vertical. So I managed to get most of the glazing on - once finished I'll have the mammoth task of adding all the window masks!

Ooh yes - are you doing both 1/72th and 1/35th? I've built the AFV Club Scimitar before - would be nice to see either (or both) of these!

So small progress - I decided I will add the motor. I hand painted the interior of the intake black, built and fitted it before adding some primer - this was my first attempt and coat with Mr Hobby, Mr Base White 1000 - which is supposed to have more pigment to block base colours, I'm not sure if it does, yellow is quite a tricky colour to cover, also I've got some mould lines I need to clean up further!

So I finally got around to doing a bit of priming, using Mr Surfacer 1000 mahogany... I built up the engine block parts - it's going to be fiddly to fit it in! I built up the ammo boxes, a simple enough process if a little long and tedious. The rear tailgate and basket were finally added - they have come out quite nicely with the PE, even though I really hate using super-glue (tends to stick to flesh more than anything else) - the plastic parts did get slightly warped when taking them off the sprue but once attached to the tailgate and with the PE they seem to have straightened up. I then applied a 50:50 mix of the brown primer with Mr Color 39 Dark Yellow, then that mix thinned 50:50 with self-levelling thinner. It actually looks a lot lighter in the photo than in real-life. I'll need to add another coat (lightened further) to the bits that will be difficult to get to later. The seat supports I've now glued in (I did so with the seats in place to help alignment) - the bonnet, chassis and rear cage are still loose - though I couldn't help dry fitting them for the photo.

They were developed for the Army to provide a "tactical and artillery reconnaissance aircraft to provide photographic reconnaissance" according to Wikipedia though replaced in 1941 but also used by the Free French Air Force. So I'll say yes.

I don't think I've ever seen one that comes with working lights / props OOB, will be interesting to see how that all fits together!

Not to worry, I can relate to being in that hole of trying to find the right colour! Will you be adding washes on top?

Coming together well and managing to steal some bench time from that Tyrrell!

Work continues on the Landy - rather a lot of steering arms, suspension linkages, etc. I did manage to break what I think is the anti-roll bar at the front (dry fitting then attempting to remove with the tight fit) but glued it back together in place. Also one of the tow rings got snapped though again I managed to fix it. I really couldn't figure out how/where to fit the transfer box with the driveshafts - the shafts are slightly angled but that didn't seem to help much. It's difficult to see if the transfer box should attach to the small mounting point or how from the instructions (see in below image). In the end after much puzzling I noticed that there are two mounting points for the gearbox on the underside of the body and that the transfer box fits neatly into the gearbox, though fitting the engine and gearbox now (or even in the instruction order) seems prone to fit issues - the engine front attaches it appears by a spline on the fan and two radiator hoses and the only thing holding it in place would be those points and this wobbly attachment to the driveshafts. What would make matters worse is that the radiator part is also the front grill and there are no mounting points to align that to avoid misalignment with the front wings, etc. later. My solution is that I'll build the bodywork first, fit the engine and gearbox into that, then somehow lower it onto the chassis fitting the drive shafts, worst case I'll have to cut the connecting pins from the shafts and just use a little super glue to hold them in. I also decided to fit the other chassis rails - that means I won't get the exhaust threaded back through in one piece but hopefully I can cut and reglue it in place later. I fitted the front bulkhead using the chassis rails as a jig, this also helped get the side chassis extensions lined up as I fitted them. Some of the other sub assemblies got built up - the rear roll-cage / weapon mount, the bonnet including 4 very tiny/fiddly mounting points (rubber stops?) for the spare wheel. I wasn't sure how low the centre ring should fit for the spare - it seemed to want to sit somewhat offset but I decided to mount it as low as possible (opened out the mounting holes more) since the tyre would even then be slightly floating off the 4 external mount points. In the end I decided to mount the front wings / bodywork using the chassis as a jig again - that should make painting it easier. As I mentioned before, there's quite a few ejector pin marks on the underside but luckily they won't be obviously visible once finished. You can see the engine/gearbox mounting points here... I test fitted the bonnet - there's no OOB option to model it open, which is a shame as there is quite a lot of engine detail (also there are small cut-outs / indents where four pins in the bonnet fit into the top of the wings, so it would make life difficult if you did want to. So next onto some primer I guess - I'm going to go with some dark brown which should hopefully help hide any of the deep spots I can't get actual paint into later, I'm going to go with the slightly easier desert scheme paint I think - so building up the colour in layers from the dark browns to the lighter tones.

I still haven't decided on a colour, the green one looks to have black erm... fender extenders (not entirely sure what to call them, side bumpers, extended arches?) so might need some masking but then I seem to have done a lot of armour in desert colours of late. I did make a small start on the kit, I'm planning to get as many sub-assemblies together first before applying paint as I like to get the airbrush out for a good session rather than all the hassle of cleaning after painting individual pieces. The fit is generally good, above that's the seats dry fitted onto the interior tub which is fitted onto the chassis rails. Only issues / notes so far: There are a few ejector pin marks on the underside of the tub floor that I wish I'd noticed before adding the sides as now a bit hard to get to (and seem full of mould release agent/muck) , though they shouldn't be too visible when finished and a bit of weathering/mud and the wheels should hide them. I was a bit worried about getting the alignment right on the chassis but there are 6 mounting pins / holes on the tub underside (3 per main rail) which I should have used as a bit of a jig - though thankfully it all fits. The seat 'reinforcement' bars come in two halves, joined down the vertical centre with no locator pins - a bit fraught trying to get 3 bars per side lined up but they seem servicable.