Rob G Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 To start this off, here's the story so far... After a week away from the modelling bench due to work commitments of varying sorts, I came home on Friday morning and had a good look at what I'd done in the mad rush to finish on time, and decided that it wasn't good. OK, but not good. Therefore, I started in on rubbing the paint down with some 4/0 steel wool, in an effort to smooth things out and remove some of the paint that had dried before it hit the target, as well as feathering the bits that were pulled off by the dodgy tape from the original masking job. All was going well until I managed to snap off the port overwing tank, which didn't surprise me, as it was never the most cooperative of parts anyway... words were muttered, and I continued the steel wooling, then cleaned up the glued joint and reattached the tank. After it set, I started in on cleaning up the joint (superglue is good and fast, but can be a bear to remove)... all was going swimmingly when... *crack*... the starboard side tank fell prey to an errant finger. More words were said, with considerably more force... Tank was duly cleaned up and reattached, then after it set up I cleaned up the joint and gave the old girl a bath in warm soapy to remove stray steel wool shards, fingerprints, sanding debris, scraping detruitus and general ookery. After a towelling down, she was put into the linen cupboard (which is above the water heater - cunning design, that) to dry out to a stage allowing paint to be applied. Today (Saturday) started early with a coat of Barley Grey under the wings, patching up the bare areas. By early afternoon, after spending time in the linen cupboard, that coat was sufficiently dry to allow the addition of undersurface colour of Medium Sea Grey - an Iwata HP-C sprays a very fine line indeed when required, which allows for this sort of paint patching job. Back into the linen cupboard for a few hours to dry - I spent the evening masking up for the top colour, which has been duly applied, and the old girl's back in the cupboard for the night. Hopefully, all will be ready to unmask on the morrow, and I can start in on redoing the natural metal areas and the fine details. I have to strip the Red Tops, as they're frankly horrible to behold, and there's some detail painting to do on the undercart and etceteras... but things are rolling. Here's the 2nd lot of masking, just in case anyone wants to see. [post=20150110_202209 by RobG67, on Flickr][/post] [post=20150110_202246 by RobG67, on Flickr][/post] 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted January 10, 2015 Author Share Posted January 10, 2015 Update: Sunday morning. Removed the masking first up, and that same darn patch of paint under the wing peeled off again. This despite alcohol rubs and a good wash. <sigh> Never mind, the good old hairy stick has sorted it well enough. A bit of quick masking for the natural metal now, and we'll be getting close to Future and decals! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nimrod54 Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Glad to see that this is getting somewhere near Rob, but sorry to hear about the paint problems. I wonder what the cause of that is, it seems odd that it should be in the same area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 Odd indeed Nimrod, but these things happen - I've done a bit of industrial painting and sometimes even 2 pack epoxy paint won't stick to some areas. Oh well. In other news, I've decided to add the cannon muzzles to the belly tank; the next time I decide to modify an almost completed kit, will one of you gentle folk please wallop me around the back of the skull with something large and wooden, because stupid. There will be photos and descriptions and stuffs in due course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted January 12, 2015 Author Share Posted January 12, 2015 (edited) Update, for anyone who cares. In between unscheduled life stuff, I've managed to spend a bit of time on the Lightning. As mentioned in the previous post, I decided to install some tube to make muzzles for the guns... what would have been a relatively simple operation on a kit still in pieces became a study in miniature engineering that frankly, I'm not in a hurry to repeat, even though it was rewarding to solve the problems. The gun barrels are 2 halves of a Revell Contacta cement needle; slightly overscale, but meh. As can be seen, I cut the muzzles to an angle as per the real thing, although I'm not sure why I bothered, it's invisibly small. Oh well, all good practice. Yes, that's a sharpening stone - invaluable for making controllable adjustments on small metal things. The fuselage holes were opened up with drills, then small reamers; there wasn't enough room to do it as well as I would have liked, so next time I'll do it first!. The spring steel wire running through the fuselage was an early tool, worked out after I managed to drop the first bit of tube into the fuselage, which resulted in the need to drill a hole in the rear bulkhead to get it back out. The wire serves 2 purposes - firstly (and most importantly), it stopped the tiny bit of steel tube from disappearing inside the beast, as it runs the full length of the fuselage (plus quite a bit), and secondly, it allowed me to provide pressure to locate the tube while the superglue set. To assist in the location of the tube, 4 layers of Tamiya tape was applied and burnished into the gun recess; not enough, but all I had room for. Here's the first tube installed, and the tape for the second still in place. The guns are somewhat wall-eyed, the paint is still daggy and I should've replaced the panel lines with fine wire, but it's going to have to stay the way it is, as I have neither time, patience nor incentive to do it all again. Since photographing this bit, I have stripped the wheel wells of paint (4+ layers made them look a bit tatty) and repainted them. By the time you read this, the natural metal bits will be on, and I can start with the Future before decals (that sounds familiar... did they reset the Matrix??) Rob. Edited January 12, 2015 by Rob G 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nimrod54 Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Is It Groundhog Day? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonymousDFB1 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Making good progress there 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyverns4 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Full marks for effort and making steady headway. Looking forward to seeing it finished! I have also had paint repeatedly peel off from the same location on one particular model, (Airfix Westland Whirlwind), prop job not the unseemly fan thingy. Tried cleaning with denatured alcohol, white spirits, etc, spraying on various primers, paints, (thickly to sand down and thin to layer), bats blood, pulverised unicorn horn and nothing worked. Ended up by applying some plumbers aluminium tape*... Towards the end of this sorry saga, (one of many...), I noticed that the uncooperative area of plastic was looking grayer. Thinking that I had not polished the surface and that the discolouration was caused by fine scratches I polished and polished until it became apparent that the discolouration was in the plastic. So it appeared that the reason for the peeling paint was some errant contamination in the injected plastic. * Plumbers Tape is great for resurfacing areas that have been sanded down too much... Christian the Married and exiled to africa 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 Update. A week on, and what a week it's been. Night shifts (away from home), busy days, and a 30-years-after-we-finished-OMG-we've-got-old high school reunion (I thoroughly recommend them BTW, they are entertaining and quite revealing, especially if like me, you were one of the unseen, colourless non-entities), which slowed down (but didn't end) when they closed the venue around us at 230am... Enough excuses man. I have managed a few little bits here and there as time allowed, but today has been the most productive. Starboard side is decalled and drying, port side will be done tomorrow AM (life allowing). I have to work out a way to remove Xtracrylix clear gloss from the canopy (because I was too lazy to mask it...), as it's made the thing a bit misty. Apart from that, all is slowly slotting into place. Should be done by... never mind, don't want to put the kibosh on it, do we? I've also managed some work on the F-107... hopefully, the decks will be clear by the end of the week, and I can move on to other GBs. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted February 9, 2015 Author Share Posted February 9, 2015 This may not be strictly pukkah, given that the GB has ended, but here's an update (and it's not worth the effort of even asking Mish to move this to WIPs, let alone her actually doing it.) Decalling is almost done - just the starboard serial to do, from teeny weeny itsy bitsy Modeldecal single letters and numbers, because I decided that I didn't want to do the kit offering after all. Port side has been done, and those 5 digits took me an hour, so I said "arr, buggrit" and put it all away for the night. With luck, I will find time to do them tomorrow, whereupon they can dry for a few days while I'm away at work, allowing me to do flat coats and weathering over the weekend. With luck. Then I can stick the undercart and refuelling probe on, and call it done. Photos will follow when she's on her legs and RFI. Not that there's much to inspect, she's no showboat. Oh well. In other news, the F-107 has gone on the back burner - I have decided to make that one as an operational Vietnam-era Whif. With that end in mind, I'm researching stuffs and collecting things. Lots of Mk 82s are going to be hung, methinks. And I have a story to write as well, to justify the whole thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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