Avgas

Something happened which made my day today and in fact ranks as a top highlight of my modelling 'career'. I've been helping out at one of my local animal shelter charity stores for a while now and decided to donate a few of my models to them in the hope that they may raise a few pennies. I don't sell my finished articles nor am I a member of a club so any kind of feedback is always appreciated because it's rare! Anyway, today I was approached by a mum who told me her 8 year old son's birthday is coming up and he'd spotted the Rafale I'd donated a few days back and that it's 'all he has put on his birthday list'. So, I'm happy that my work was appreciated and also happy that I may have possibly inspired a youngster to hopefully take up the hobby soon! BTW this is the one his mum has got him. 😊

Looks great!

We had a thread like this a few years ago but it vanished 🤷‍♂️ Not before I used it to track down an elusive kit I'd been after for a while. Anyway, to add to the list, another from the midlands: 'Clifton Curios' in Ashby-De-La-Zouch. Small shop but I'm amazed just how much Mike manages to fit in there. What he doesn't have he's always willing to try and source.

Fantastic work so far. Special mention must go to that seat - superb!

That is one thing I have applied to decals through my airbrush with decent results 👍

Interesting.. And along the lines of something I wondered about during my last build. I had to resort to TET applied by brush to tame some stubborn decals. It worked well but the brush has the potential to smudge the decal ink. I considered misting it through my airbrush instead but wasn't sure how the airbrush would cope. If the make up of the airbrush cleaner and TET are almost identical, maybe it's worth trying next time.

I find this stuff a little too matt for my liking. It struck me while reading this thread, perhaps thinning it 50/50 with Future would work. Anybody tried this?

That's turned out very well. I wanted to buy one of these but wasn't sure how such enormous decals would behave. I'm happy to hear they were good so I may just get one yet.

Cute! And well modelled, looks great!

Thank you guys And a special thanks to you Tiger331 for sending me replacement wheels years ago, as I had buggered mine up!

Hopefully yours are better than mine were. Mine are dated 2013 so if yours are newer then perhaps there is hope! Thanks for the comments everyone!

Of course, no problem Werner. I thought if anybody notices these things it's going to be you 😆.. In fact, I considered sending you a PM asking about the loadout but decided against it in the end because I was always going to hang as much as I could underneath and accuracy took a back seat for various reasons! I think the short version is I wouldn't recommend them. Like you, I found them pretty hard to work with. Firstly, one of the sheets had grit between the paper and decal, like someone had dropped it on the floor and printed over it anyway. Registration was not very good either - if you take a close look at the hot air warning marks, you may notice the decal is red printed over white, except the colours don't line up. The white walkway lines are not great quality either, with what looks like 'bleeding' in some places. The instructions were hard to decipher and impossible to read on one of the sheets - I had to email Aztec to ask for a better quality placement guide, which to their credit they did (within 48hrs). I also found they were very sensitive to temperature and the optimal temperature range was very small, which meant changing the water often. The decals were the main reason for me losing any interest in accuracy. See above Thanks for the comments, everyone.

Thank you. I'd say more niggly than difficult. It was a case of every single part needing clean up, light lenses were undersized, that kind of thing. All part of model building I know, but not stuff that I find enjoyable!

This is the Kinetic 1/48 Kfir C2 which I started in 2014 and dumped on the shelf of doom in frustration. I thought the lockdown was an ideal opportunity to give it another go, so here it is. Decals by Aztec, paints used were Tamiya and Mr Hobby Aqueous, weathered with oils and pastels (eye shadow). A layer of dirt hides a multitude of sins (or something to that effect), so I've gone for quite dirty! I'm not entirely sure the loadout is correct - I may be 2 Mk.82's too heavy, in which case I probably have the world's fastest armed land vehicle, but I like it that way! Thanks for stopping by, hope you like it

I do like them dirty. Lovely job!

Great save! That looks the business, well done!

The weathering is just up my street - I like them dirty! Fantastic finish, well done!

The only thing stopping me shaking my box.. I really likethe F-35 and your model looks great!

Very smart. Love it!

Nicely done Werner, looks good!

Very nice build! I like the scheme.

Well, my order of battle is usually Micro Set/Sol, Tamiya X20a through an airbrush, and if they both fail, a dab of Tamiya Extra Thin. I'd suggest practicing on a surplus decal! The important thing is to only give a single dab, if more is needed then wait until the first appliction is completely dry. Like I said, its a nuclear option and I'd try stronger solvents than the Sol/Set that I have, before giving this a go. I didn't have any X20a left, or a stronger purpose made decal solvent, or the will to put much more effort into the build because the quality of the decals was a let down (see pics). Before TET (Note the out of register printing which is why I stopped caring 🤦‍♂️) After TET

Sounds a bit like the battle I've just had with some Aztec decals. Thankfully I skipped the hairdryer and went straight for the nuclear option, Tamiya Extra Thin. I learned my lesson with heat a few years back when my Mig-29 that I'd left on the radiator overnight looked like a drooped nose Concorde in the morning.. Well done on the save, l'd never had known you struggled just by looking at it. Nice result !

That's a stunning finish!