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1/144 F117 A (First Build Be Gentle?)


Tomathee

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After settling on the look after painting I did a quick brush over with 1200, unfortunately I was a bit heavy handed and it took a couple of patches back to primer, mostly on corners. On with another coat all over.

Masking of the area to paint matt black was straight forward enough, but I found it a bit hard to tell the difference to be honest..

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Onwards, using Humbrol clear. I didn't expect any kind of decent results as the work on priming wasn't up to scratch but it is a bit disappointing in any case, I guess gloss shows it up worse than the primer or paint. I've done three coats at this point, looks a bit worse than actual in the first pic. Don't know if more coats or some other step could help, obviously sanding it back would be an option but I'm not going that far for this particular model, I'll save that for something more worthwhile. I can live with how it looks at this stage, only concern is decals perhaps not appreciating the less than mirror finish. I guess after decals I would do a matt or satin(?) varnish after another gloss coat if needed which might disguise some of my handiwork.

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  • 1 month later...

After asking for some advice, and because I've got my second build off the ground and making progress there I decided to take the time and effort to try again. Not completely however, I didn't plan on taking off the decals so I concentrated mostly on the wing that didn't have any, and the flat areas that would be easier to deal with. Most likely won't look pretty whatever the outcome but the build is serving its purpose of learning skills, I'd rather mess this one up than one I'd like to display somewhere...

Here is how far back I took the sanding, the grey is primer. I also sanded back the other wing, going around the decals, the 'star' shape on top on the main body and the two flat areas next to the cockpit.

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And here after repainting, not sure why the other area looks a mess, must have done another coat since then.

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As some of the replies to my cry for help said the gloss might have been too thick I've tried thinning it and have done two coats, will see how they turn out and where to go next. It definitely went on easier so fingers crossed!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Pushing on towards the finish line I completed the gloss coats and with it looking a little better than my first attempt I moved forward to the matt. First time using Vallejo matt varnish, went on a bit cloudy looking (shook for quite a few minutes) so I feared the worst however it started drying quickly and cleared up so I could start breathing again. This is what it looked like immediately after applying it, thinned around 50:50;

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I thought it wouldn't hurt to add flow enhancer to the bottle so did and a further two coats around 50:50 with water. It's now had a few days to dry/cure/harden/other technical terms and I'm thinking that I'm at a point now where I can add on the final bits and call it a day. I can't see any other steps I can take to improve the finish, extra matt coats or less/more thinned matt coats?

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As always, thanks for viewing and inputting

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  • 2 weeks later...

What should be the penultimate update....

Added weapons, landing gear and the associated doors in that order. This went fairly smoothly although some of the doors feel less secure than others. Wheels were straight forward, finished off with the antenna(?) at the front, again fairly easy with some tweezers and a knife to keep them in position. I think these are among the areas that held bad memories from childhood modelling and the tube cement leaving trails right at the last hurdle.

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Not wanting to call this complete, it's thrown up one final problem....

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I think I'll just find a suitable surface and use a touch of blutac, it's only just enough to tip it so hopefully I can use a small enough amount that won't be noticeable. Easier than trying to open it up and put weights in at this stage. I've also to sort out a background to take some proper photos of the finished article, at which points I can finally say I've finished my first build (currently at 8 months and counting!)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finally I can call this complete, so I'll wrap up here with a minor update and head off to put together a quick thread for the Ready for Inspection board. The only step to add from the last update was putting into practice an idea I had early on regarding the intake(s). Avid viewers ( :mental: ) may remember several months ago me taking a knife to those parts, for one thing I mistakenly believed they should include only horizontal lines rather than a grid pattern, and in any case were very much not to scale so I carried on and removed it back to a flat piece. Fortunately I found a suitable piece of material in the form of a bag containing some gift or other at Christmas, a small black fabric mesh bag. This had the benefit of having a grid pattern (much closer) to scale and already being in black. I should have taken some more photos but essentially I cut it to size and used a touch of superglue after checking it had no untoward effect at such a late stage.

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During photography I tried blu tac to hold down the front wheel but it stood out too much, so I went with double sided tape. It worked this time although I suspect if there was much more weight towards the tail it might not hold it down. For now the model will live in a tupperware, I don't have anywhere for a storage case/cabinet for the time being. It's one of those things that will hopefully be resolved when we move to a house in the near future, assuming deadlines remain I'll only finish two or three more in that time in any case, and this one in particular is no show stopper.

To sign off, I'm glad I saw this through, both the model and the initial interest in taking up the hobby. Glad to report the interest is definitely there for me to continue, which is good as I'm already pretty well invested in terms of tools and a mini stash :) . On the one hand I wish I had done something different as a first build, both as an accurate reproduction and for some of the build. Against that, I'm glad that I've seen this one through the challenges, giving up at some of the more awkward parts/times to start something easier didn't come into it and whenever I had time of an evening to put some work in I never felt like shying away to do something else, which I've been known for in other things so it should follow that with easier and more amicable builds I'll be even more keen to press on. I've picked up so much during this that I'll use hopefully for many more builds to come, one of the main things being that I'll always be learning something for the next time, indeed the second model I started off at slower parts during this is already at the waiting for primer stage via a much quicker build with better filling technique for example. Finally, thanks to everyone here, for the encouragement and critiquing on this thread, answering my questions peppered around, or putting up your own builds that I've read up on for tips and ideas.

TL;DR - Hobby/build=good, model=bad

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Thanks Martin, I've been working on a Curtiss Kittyhawk P40 from my initial eBay spree on cheap practice models. After that I think I'll have a go at an armour build to satisfy that curiosity. I'd like to think/hope I'll settle on a more specific subject area but there is such a great variety around that dipping in and out will probably be the way for me, despite the extra cost on a wider variety of paint etc.

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