EC182

It did. I soaked it for a few hours and cleaned out the inside with a toothpick, removing several big flakes of dried paint. It's running like new now, wish I'd done it much earlier. Cheers.

Thanks for the replies. I use enamels only, so it seems the IPA wouldn't be compatible. The airbrush cleaner is what I have to hand, so I'm just wondering whether soaking the nozzle assembly in that would produce any ill-effects. I'm pretty sure it would do a good job of cleaning it.

The nozzle of my Iwata airbrush has become clogged with dry paint, which has built up over time and has caused sputtering. I immersed the entire nozzle in enamel thinner for a while and this helped get some of it out, but there's still quite a bit of gunk there. I'm now wondering whether immersing it in Tamiya airbrush cleaner for a few hours would damage it in any way. The Eclipse nozzle seems to be very durable in comparison with that of a cheaper Iwata airbrush I had previously, but I'm still a bit hesitant. Any answers appreciated.

Thanks very much indeed, that's exactly what I'm looking for. So it seems those markings were present on 49 earlier in its career, before being deleted later on. I had wondered about the emblem on the tail it appears in the drawings supplied with the Karaya decals, but not in any of the photos available online. That black-and-white photo is the first I've seen of 49 with that particular marking. So i guess I'm doing 49 as it appeared earlier on. Thanks again, much appreciated.

Maybe I made an incorrect assumption - the camo scheme (tan/brown/green) looks far more suited to a desert environment than Central Europe, so I thought 49 must have originally flown in Afghanistan before ending up in Germany. Interesting replies, thanks.

Hello, I'm currently at the decal-fitting stage with a HobbyBoss 1/48 Su-17M4 and have bought Karaya decals which belong on the aircraft I'm trying to reproduce, 'Yellow 49'. I want a well-weathered aircraft, as I just think they look far more interesting. For this reason I want to depict the aircraft as it would've appeared in Afghanistan. Thing is, the decals are for this aircraft as it was in Germany circa 1992, quite a while after Afghanistan. As such, it has a number of markings (Guards emblem, squadron emblem on the tail etc.) which I'm not sure would have been applied in Afghanistan. Does anybody know whether they would have been? Photos of Soviet Su-17s available online werw overwhelmingly taken in Germany in the early 90s, there seem to be very few if any from Soviet Fitters in Afghanistan. Any help appreciated.

Thanks for the reply - I'd had a look at IPMS; that's what indicated that the colours I wanted were only ready-made in acrylic, which I'm not interested in, or not easily available where I am. Hence me wondering what others might have used. I have yet to put on most of the final colour (145). Might just add a small drop of bluer blue to subtly change it and increase the contrast a bit.

I'm doing an F-5A in this scheme and have used Humbrol enamels 127, 140 and 145. The first two are best-guess substitutes, as the Humbrol equivalents for the recommended FS colours either don't exist or have been discontinued - and I'd rather avoid mixing. I fear I've gotten it slightly wrong as the contrast between the three colours is extremely low, to the point that the delineation is hard to see and they almost blend into one another. This is somewhat true of the real aircraft painted in this scheme also, but not to the extent that I've come up with. Maybe it'll look slight different under a coat of varnish.. I'm wondering whether anyone else has done anything in this scheme, and what colours they used. Cheers.

Thanks for the reply pigsty. Problem solved - I cut a wafer of plastic from an unwanted part and wedged it between a rib inside the fuselage and the main body of the engine. That pushed the wing root out just enough, and hasn't caused any issues anywhere else. You put me on the right track with your talk of free plastic 😀

Greetings, Bit of a tricky one to describe. I'm currently working on a Kinetic Nesher and have had a fair few problems with the fit. In particular, the forward air intake cover on one side will not sit properly to correspond with its counterpart on the other side, which sits perfectly, with its top lip at a certain point just above the shock cone. The only way to get the troublesome cover into position is to move it in a way that places it out of alignment with the rest of the fuselage and the wing root, creating a big step and a gap. The problem could largely be solved by pushing the wing root out at the bottom by a millimetre or so, so that it meets the cover properly when the lip is aligned. I don't want to achieve this by placing glue under shear tension, as I fear it will come unstuck at some point later. All I can think of is to somehow push the wing root out from the inside using some kind of a spacer. If anyone has done anything like this before and has any suggestions as to how best to do it, it would be appreciated.

I use a crude but fairly easy and effective method for painting canopies without a mask - just paint the frame roughly, then use a cotton bud dipped in enamel thinner to clean off any paint (usually lots) that has strayed off the frame. A toothpick can be used to clean out any tight corners which can't be reached with the cotton bud. The paint will not adhere well at first, so your first coat will effectively serve as your primer. It will take at least three coats to do it property, cleaning stray paint off the canopy each time. There will be brush marks, but these will disappear underneath a coat of gloss varnish.

Cheers Tim, appreciate it. I finished the job with Mr Paint Remover and am very happy with the result. A bit of primer and some black basing and it'll be good to go again

How do you apply the Revell Paint Remover?

I lightly sanded everything down and went at it with the Mr. Paint Remover, using cotton buds and makeup pads. It's good stuff. The paint didn't come off quite as easily as in the video, but come off it did, with a little bit of patience. About 30 minutes was required to strip the upper surface of one wing. As that's all I can generally manage at a time (if even), it'll take a few more days to finish the job. The plastic appears unaffected and restored to its original condition, except that - and this could be my imagination - it now appears to be a shade lighter than it was out of the box. Thankfully, glue and filler seem to be unaffected also. It's a bit difficult to get into the crevices around the wing fences, but I'll tidy those up later on. I'd post a picture, but I don't see an option for it here.

That might be the right approach too, hard to know at this stage. In the video he uses Mr Paint Remover on parts still attached to the sprue, no glue involved. I can't find any reviews to help, either. What solvent did you use? I have a painted and glued fuel tank; might try it out on that first, see what happens.

Your point is well-made; nothing to lose and potentially a lot of time saved. I'm going to sand everything smooth and, based on the video, hopefully pick up some Mr. Paint Remover tomorrow. There is some concern about what effect it'll have on the Tamiya Basic and superglue I've used to fill some gaps, but we'll see. I'll let you know in a few days' time.

Have a look:

I think that might be the best course of action. The brown paint has a slightly rough texture (it's a green/brown camo scheme), I'll take that off and apply Mr Color Thinner. Hopefully that'll bring it back to its original state, ready to start again. Incidentally, while looking at Mr Color Thinner I also saw a video of Mr Paint Remover, which looks pretty effective too.

Thanks for the replies fellas. It's pretty much the entire upper fuselage. You reckon Mr Muscle is good? There seems to be a lot of conflicting information out there on what works best. Sanding might work, but I guess the downside is the risk of rubbing out surface detail. That's why I was thinking of simply airbrushing over the top of it, and wondering how this was likely to turn out.

Hello, Due to an unfortunate mistake during the masking process which snowballed into a bigger problem when I made a ham-fisted attempt to fix it, I am not happy with the unfinished paintjob on my 1/48 MiG-17. It's not terrible, but I don't want to press ahead and put a lot more work in for a substandard result. Three options: 1. Attempt to strip the (enamel) paint off and start again. I am wary of doing this, as most methods seem to involve immersing the model in liquid, and I can't do this without affecting the cockpit, which I don't want to do. 2. Black-basing over the existing paint and starting again with new coats. However, there are already three coats (and in some parts, four, including the original black base and some brushed-on paint which is the cause of the problem), and I wonder how this would turn out. 3. Cutting out the cockpit and buying a new model for about $40. I am mostly curious about option 2. If I go with this, there would be, at worst, six or seven coats in some places, albeit thin ones. Is that too many, would it be likely to come out poorly? I'm using Humbrol and Revell enamels. Any input welcome.

I don't know whether it's available outside Australia, but Anko Reusable Tack (from Kmart) is ideal for doing camo. It has a similar texture to White Tac and is similarly easy to roll into strings and curve, but it's smoother and less sticky. It has just about enough adhesion to stick to your model with light pressure, but it lifts straight off when you're finished - no time wasted cleaning it up, no need to dab it off bit by bit as is necessary with White Tac. Won't remove paint or leave marks, either. Highly recommended.