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1/72 Jet Provosts - Finished


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Super sharp masking Steve. Good job. The twins will look a treat sat together in the display case. Very nice to contrast and compare the two marques side by side.

In parallel I had a go at Dean's suggestion of decal film. I found that laying down the external colour, followed by the internal colour (remember the decal had to be applied to the inside) and then a coat of varnish and then cutting a thin strip - was really easy. I applied a strip to the back-up vac formed windscreen and found it pretty tricky to get it to lay truely straight and also to adhere well (both because of the thinness of the strip - but manageable and on balance probably a better solution than painting. Next time...

Steve

Thanks for the explanation regarding the use of Dean's idea for canopy framing, much appreciated. After much consideration I think this will be the path I try first.

Eager to see more on your J.P.s soon.

Cheers.

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A gentle edge rub with a fine new sharp scalpel blade WILL lift the little bit of 'red creep' off the white and leave no trace that a stick loaded with a Micromeshy bit cannot eradicate

Peasy of easy

Did that. Worked a treat - perfect result. Invaluable tip ta Bill.

Mr Fritag, have you considered using Aizu masking tape ? It comes in a number of different widths from 0.4mm up to 2.5mm and is thinner than Tamiya tape.

How do you get such an even coverage of red? How many coats does that take, and how long do you wait between each coat? ... and please don't tell me that you manage that in a single pass otherwise I'm giving up.

Ta hendie. Always on the look out for different masking solutions. I'll try some of that.

As to the red. I used Revell Fiery Red 330 Matt - thinned with Tamiya X20A and a drop or two of flow enhancer - and it sprays really nicely - which helps a great deal! It's rather disconcertingly thick in the pot - so much so that I couldn't accurately decant it to thin it - more a case of a few lumps of paint in a mixing jar and then eyeball the thinner until it looked suitably thin.

I can't say precisely how many coats - cos I'm a bit haphazard in my methodology :( (notwithstanding that this is the third model on the trot I've painted in this red :)) What I can say is that I give each area a light mist coat to begin with - and I've learned not to get immediately disheartened at the fact that it looks like it will never adequately or evenly cover the white primer - and then I just continue working over the model with lightish coats - probably at least 3 or 4 passes over any given section - until it's done. I do it all in one go and let each section just go matt before going over it again - so only a few minutes between coats.

I did say it was a bit haphazard....

Note to self - get more methodical.....

Great stuff Steve..echoing hendies thought regarding the masking, you seem to have taken the tortuous route with all those small sections !..I

Ah - it does look like that don't it. In fact the fuselage line was marked in only 3 lengths of strip. Each side had 1 long thin strip from tail to near the nose - and then a separate strip for the nose itself.

I get a bit paranoid that thin strips of tape won't stay stuck where I put em - so I reinforce the strip with a larger square of tape at each point there is a bend or change in direction - and at regular intervals over longer straight runs. It makes it look like the whole fuselage was done in 2cm lengths!

Didn't do much modelling this weekend. Had a busy time of it with other stuff. One of which was a 1 hour trial lesson in a flex wing microlight (that's me in the blue in the front):

IMG_2492_zpsa76b8c89.jpg

Tootled for a look see over Church Fenton and then over Elvington and generally around the vale of York. Really enjoyed it and may well do more.

It was simple to fly but it would take a while to became intuitive.

Everything works opposite to fixed wing controls; i.e. push the bar forward to climb, pull backwards to descend, push it to the left to bank right and so on. Even taxying is opposite. the steerable nose wheel is directly connected to the foot bars - so push the left foot forward to steer to the right (like bicycle handlebars).

Anyways - when i did get a bit of time to work on the JPs - the Mark 3 began its fight back.......

I'm really pleased with how the red went on and how clean the masked lines came out - but as soon as I took the masking off I was a bit troubled by the profile around the nose. On the full size version there is a distinct dip towards the nose lights:

IMG_0010_zps4a0282f0.jpg

Which my effort failed to capture:

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I'd hoped I'd got it - but was sort of afraid I hadn't. There is quite a small radius curve around the nose and I sort of knew that I'd let the masking tape dictate to me how small a radius I managed - rather than the other way around. Know what I mean?

I wasn't relishing the prospect of correcting it - but hey ho. Applying the collective wisdom of BM it wasn't too bad. I gently scraped off the red on the nose over the area that now needed to be white (thanks again Bill) - to minimise the amount of white respraying needed - and I sacrificed another mini test tube (thanks Mark) for a quick mix of white. Mark is soooo right that it's having this easy means of mixing and keeping (if need be) small quantities of paint that makes these annoying little jobs less unpalatable:

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New Profile:

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Compared with the old - subtle but noticeable difference - and even more noticeable from head on or the front quarter:

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And after re-sprayign red:

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happier with that......

And anti-dazzle black panel done too:

Very hard to get these subtle curves right. Not sure I've got it 100% even now - the cures of the black and the red should actually match each other for a little bit more of their length - I may or may not bother adjusting that as it's very subtle - but better.....

Oh - I said that the JP 3 was fighting back - well the windscreen came off as I unmasked the black......

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And I'd used cyano to try and avoid such an eventuality too.

Oh well. Shouldn't be a big fix.....

Edited by Fritag
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Much better after correction; it looked all good apart from the front panel. I know it was a big faff, but you have really captured the curves beautifully; looks stunning!

[says the man who has not been able to touch a model in the 2 weeks since he came home from Norfolk. Actually, not strictly true; I have fitted one PE ladder to Ark's stern CIWS sponson, but not worth a photo)

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Thanks Crisp, yes I think it was worth the faff. I've now got it too the point that I'm happy with it.

This is how most of them look in profile (this captures it pretty well) - a definite down turn in the red in last panel at the nose - but that is also the area in which the black and red are largely parallel to each other:

3CF11773-A59C-48D2-AE54-9B3537AD377D_zps

Now here's how I got it when I reprofiled the red and did the black anti-dazzle - much happier with the red, but the black in the last panel was too obviously not parallel to the red.

IMG_2521_zps2d5340fd.jpg

So I have now very subtly straightened the black at that point - quite an easy job - I'm not claiming perfection but it is pretty bloomin close (remember this is an unflattering close up :)) and I think it's probably as close as I can get :)

The alternative would have been to adjust the curve of the red at that point - but that would have had the knock on effect of straightening out - and probably losing entirely - the curve back to the windscreen; and that would have been a glaring error.

Actually I think accuracy from every angle is probably unachievable - because I suspect that the 3 dimensional profile of the nose on the kit will be very slightly different from the real thing - either due to the limits of the kit or subtle alterations due to sanding the fuselage hoping flat and/or rubbing down the seams. There same was true on the JP 5 and I ended up masking lines that looked the best from most angles but might look slightly out from (say) vertically down or exactly head on etc.

IMG_2529_zps4ae3065f.jpg

Anyway, I believe that is adequate anality for one day.......... :)

Edited by Fritag
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Thanks chaps. Having temporarily excised the anality from the system it was time to fix the windscreen back on.....

It cyano'd nicely back into place but as I feared the join still needed a fair bit of cleaning up:

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I seem to be spending the back end of these builds having to clean up joins without mucking up the surrounding paint work....

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Have to say that having a better airbrush is making these little tasks much easier. It also helped me quickly tidy up all the little overspray jobs like this:

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0a31a64b96b5b4f1be2a1f851377b6e0_zpsad10

And now the 3 has just about caught up with the 5 - only needs a coat of gloss or klear and both of em'll be ready for the windscreen frames to be painted, U/C bays painted and then a bit of light weathering.

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Steve

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Steve ...
I am sending you two links where you can see what I'm working on and what I've done...
ciao
Silvano

Ciao Silvano

That is phenomenal work. Magnificent craftsmanship- and I wish I had your painting skills :)

Oh - and one practically perfect little chipmunk.

Thanks for sharing them

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Great progress Steve, they look great together :)

I remember my first landing in a flexwing, I found the nose wheel control the hardest due to being the opposite to a normal aircraft. Although I had only flown on the flying Scholarship some 8 years before, habits become engrained, I nearly turned the flexwing over on landing as my feet inputs to keep it straight were the wrong way round! We was saved by the instructor and a tap on the head followed!!!!

Here's me in my trusty Flash II Alpha in Bernay, France when I had more hair!

img001_zpsfef63b69.jpg

We took safety serious for this trip, the wings had lilo's in them incase of a mid channel ditching :lol:

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I remember my first landing in a flexwing, I found the nose wheel control the hardest due to being the opposite to a normal aircraft. Although I had only flown on the flying Scholarship some 8 years before, habits become engrained, I nearly turned the flexwing over on landing as my feet inputs to keep it straight were the wrong way round! We was saved by the instructor and a tap on the head followed!!!!

It was such a weird feeling pushing the left leg forward to turn right. Completely counterintuitive to me. I'm seriously tempted to do a bit more of this flex wing stuff Neil - it looks like a lot of fun - but seeing as it's turning cold now - I may wait until the spring........... :)

Last night I made more use of my little historex punch and die set:

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It had just about the perfect size punches for the wheel hubs:

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A visit to the garage to have another go at this alclad stuff (evil bay has provided one of them cheap spray booths within the last week or so and the combination of the booth and the use of a face mask means I am hopefully now less likely to kill myself via my hobby) produces these:

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Not bad - not perfect but good enough and some judicious use of a dark wash should cover the slight irregularities followed by a bit of a dry brush to tone it all down a tad and add a bit of interest to the tyres.

Actually the tyres were done in Tamiya Nato black with an overspray of a lightened mix. In the flesh they're not quite as dark or monochromatically uninteresting as they look in't photos.

Did the internal faces of the gear doors while I was at it. Becoming quite fond of alclad. I keep my old airbrush and all my solvent based paints in the garage and it's the work of just a few minutes to pop down - charge up the airbrush with alclad, squirt it into the booth and clean up.

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Almost time to make a check list of remaining tasks.......... :)

Edited by Fritag
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That's got to be the first time you've said that during this build.

Sticking all those little squares of masking tape with the punched out holes on each side of each wheel (6 wheels, 12 bits of masking) was a right royal pain in the ar*e. It wasn't gonna get re-done unless the result was truly appalling.............:)

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Looks like you are nailing these builds - Your critical eye for detail and uncompromising finishing technique is really paying dividends now.

An excellent set-up for BAe's product in No. 4 FTS colours. I imagine you're looking forward to the TWU challenge and change from red/white?

Great work!

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That's a good technique for masking the tyres. That punch and die set is proving a worthy investment, particularly when utilised with skill and patience. As I've said before, well worth the faff.

Glad you're liking the Alclad. Still finding my feet with it myself. The finer sheens are a tad temperamental, and it's blinkin' smelly; but really impressed with it thus far - similar sensation to when I first saw colour television round a mate's house (yeah I know I'm old enough to remember black and white TVs...).

Edited by Tomoshenko
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