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Showing results for tags 'Keller'.
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Hello, back once again! This next project was one that I had in mind for some far-off future date. However, whilst browsing through the ol' stash, I found something to move this build to the front of the line. Let me digress a bit, and state that during the 20 or more years when I was out of modeling, due to extreme burn-out from all the super-detailing craze that many of us did (and some still) gravitate towards, I used to spend the odd, aimless moments here and there, scribing kits for future use, as the scribing was also the incessant rage back then. Also I did other odd jobs, such as starting kits, doing the cockpit areas, but never with enough enthusiasm to keep going and finishing anything. Fast forward to a couple of days ago, and what did I find, but an old, started 1/72 Heller Lockheed T-33 trainer kit. I opened the box, and there was a build started back then, with the cockpit finished and installed, and the fuselage halve joined, and some filling already done. Right there I decided that this was the perfect time to make a.... well, the title pretty much says it all! The twin-tailed T-33 was an effort by Lockheed to create a jet trainer for the navy, before they finally gave up and just built the T2V-1/T-1A Seastar. Only one T-33 was modified, and even the records on it have been lost. There are precious few photos of the beast, so building the conversion is not the problem, but making it look like the pictures is the problem! Fortunately in this case, a couple of other models have gone before me, leaving enough information to make my job much easier. But, more on that in a moment. First, the kit, and the assembled fuselage look like so: The fuselage is so old that it still has remnants of the old Squadron Green Putty, which I haven't used in forever: So, the highlights of this kit are 1) it's cheap, 2) I already own it, and 3) it's already half built! Win, Win, Win... Now, as for the other modeler's that built the beast, and whose works I stole from shamelessly, are listed below: A 1/72 Hasegawa build: Click Here And a 1/32 Conversion build: CLICK OVER HERE I recommend that you peruse both these builds at your leisure, as you might find their methods even better than mine. That being said, it's a simple conversion, once you get to the shapes and sizes needed. One build had a photo, that I downloaded,re-sized and cropped, taking care to also flip the photo to get images to make up both left and right sides of the tail, each of which I copied a few times, ended up thusly Above right, using another image that I swiped, I have taken the liberty of inverting the colors (to save on black ink when printing, as I am somewhat of a cheapskate). When I printed out this exact photo at 66% the size of this original, it turned out to be the exact size needed for 1/72 scale. I used rubber cement to glue the cut-out paper shapes to a sheet of around 1mm thick plastic card. One could also use contact cement or white glue, if preferred. When done shaping, then scribing on both side of each piece, I peeled off the paper as much as possible, and used Goo-Gone, followed by a soap-and-water bath to remove the glue residue. If using contact cement, then probably mineral spirits would be required, as anything stronger would probably deform the plastic. While white glue doesn't hold up as well to the abuse, but at least it cleans off with just soapy water when done. Your choice! Part way along, the process looks like so: While I used a 1/10th mm Tamiya scriber blade for this, (or whatever their smallest one is), I found it useful to first scribe gently along the line with the tip of a #11 blade, otherwise, the Tamiya tip just tore the paper. Anyway, I've started. Feel free to follow (either me or the other modelers!) as you wish. Ed
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