Auster woes

[perdu]

I have this elderly Airfix Auster AOP6/Antarctic in refurbishment

As any of us of my generation who made this model back in... will know the roof of the canopy has a humongous bulge which was almost exclusively for the Antarctic aircraft and is as The Prince Of Wales described one of my once favourite buildings a Monstrous Carbuncle

And the canopy is nearly a metre thick in scale sizing

So having decided to repop that roof and make a better job of the interior than a bar for the driver to sit across I now have a minor dilemma

The canopy lines do not follow the line of the Auster fuselage frame but drift along in a gentle set of curves

Rather than make an immense job of what was going to be a low impact rebuild I want to use a thin line of plastic or tape to straighten the edges

Like this picture of the part rebuilt fuselage shows with Tamiya tape but the yellow shows through

Is there a similar tape with a greenish or black inner face that I could use instead of the yellow stuff?

As you can see the tape is quite prominent and I'm afraid I cannot paint that interior green line inside the canopy to act as a mask

I was thinking Solartrim but they don't have a reasonable green in the range, it seems

Hmm I suppose now I have wrestled with PB again after swearing not to do it again I may simply have to refit and mask it for a double layer of interior green

My reason for using tape is there's a prominent metal strip around the lower edge of the screen and it seemed a good idea to use the tape to mark out the doors too

Any ideas welcome but I think I've made more work for myself

Again

Well it makes me laff

ps please excuse crappy toggerphy

Edited April 8, 2016 by perdu

[hendie]

Bill, the only tapes I can think of are:

Dyno tape - but I have severe doubts about the long term stickeriness of that stuff. (I never really liked it)

Electricians tape comes in a range of colors but again the long term stick2stuff is in question.

Personally - I'd try and find some wine foil of the appropriate color (may involve sampling of interior contents just to see if the color stays the same) and use that instead of tape.

[CliffB]

Hi perdu

Could you paint corresponding black/green lines on the outside of the canopy and then apply the tape on top of these (apologies if I've completely missed the point )?

Cliff

[RJP]

Perdu, the method is close to one advocated by Alan W Hall, way back in the October 1963 issue of Airfix Magazine. He was discussing canopy lines for injection kits too and suggested using painted Sellotape to replicate frames. It's thin enough, plus it's easy to cut to size and flexible enough for curves. Cheap as dirt too.

Stick a length of tape to a sheet of glass. Paint it the appropriate colour. Allow to dry and cut out strips using a very sharp blade against a steel straight edge. I used the method often though I never tried to use two colours to replicate the interior frame paint. But I don't see why it wouldn't work.

I did hit the same problem hendie suggests - the tape simply lost its stick after a few years. I did manage to seal the tape in place using gloss varnish and maybe some experimentation would point the way?

Edited April 9, 2016 by RJP

[Anthony in NZ]

Hi Perdu

Great to see an Auster being built here! I am rebuilding a T.7 WE552 to fly again and love seeing anyone build a model of one.

I can see your issue and I think the tape idea is a great one. How you get that green on the inside I am not sure unless you mask around your tape then remove the 'framing', spray the green, then replace the tape over the green frames?? I don't know, but I love what you have achieved so far, and great to see you have the correct shade of Auster green on the interior.......my hands presently have it on them also from spraying down at the hangar today!

Let me know if you might need any help with anything

Cheers and keep up the great work

Anthony

[Rick Brown]

Have you considered using decal paper painted the correct colour, sealed, then cut to size? I use that quite a bit.

Rick.

[perdu]

Hi chaps, thanks for the ideas

RJP, yes that article is one I remember from the day I brought the mag home from the shop

Alan was a huge inspiration to me, I was thrilled to get to know him and share judging detail alongside him at the long ago Birmingham MODEX's a couple of times

Anthony I wish you'd said that before I had to trawl the net searching proper pics of the underfuselsage attachment for the wheel legs.

I envy you having your own one to play with

Cliff and Rick it seems I will be giving another look at painted lines and I do have lots of clear decal film to play with

Another heart felt plea How else but Flicker and PB can I get pictures into here?

Flicker has hidden my upload button

PB keeps telling me I'm full

Colour me fed up

Edited April 9, 2016 by perdu

[perdu]

Dymo tape never sticks for me Hendie, not even on metal cabinets which we used it for back in the toolroom

I'm thinking of making the doors separately from thin acetate, painted the interior colour first then with the AAC camouflage

The Pullman, I seen to recall you making that one a while ago

Are you OK or resting?

PS I just knew I should have looked at the Pullman before I posted that^^^

Edited April 9, 2016 by perdu

[Truro Model Builder]

We really need some new IM Austers...

[perdu]

I agree, it wasn't 'til I started the research for this one that I realised how many different types of Taylorcraft/Austers there were

Anyway I have now decided to go the normal, traditional mask and cutaway for the glasshouse and doors

I have been using GS-Hypo cement which doesn't fog or fume up the clear bits but as it's the first large (relatively FGS ) canopy I've tried it does not seem to be as firm a grip as the alternates, Cockpit Glue or stuporgoo, so I'm a bit fed up with that too

Anyway, that's it for a bit on this one, probably be a RFI if you like later

[perdu]

This is confusing

trying to edit the title as I have before but the 'use full editor' button isn't there

Anyway here is the revised masking which I will give a go, but I may ditch the new canopy and make a newer smaller one

Its in the air at the mo' until after demasking time

And with the door frames cut away

Hmm do my pics look big in these?

Anyway, no worries

I don't think wrestling with Photobucket is worth the head aches so I'll save any more pics for a brief RFI

I need a better way chaps PB is pants and I'm running out of 'Space'

[SleeperService]

Try what I do. Open a tumblr blog, post your pictures there and then copy into the post. If you want small link to the blog image if larger then right click on image and link to full stored size. Easy peasy.

As for the masking I'd suggest what we do at work. Mask the area you want to paint. Then mask the bit you don't want to paint over it pressing the tape into the corner of the first tape. Cut away the area that'll be painted, seal with clear varnish and paint.

It you need a thin strip of a different colour at the edge then don't press the tape into the corner and let the edge of the top piece overlap the lower piece slightly. Remove the top layer of tape to leave the edges exposed, seal and then paint the first colour. Then remove the bottom layer of tape and put the other colour on. Finally remove the tape from the unpainted area. Quick micromesh to take the nibs off and done.

Practice on scrap a couple of times and you should find it an easy thing to do. It's how I've done full-size edged pinstripes for years and works well for black plastic window trims on model cars.

That kit certainly brings back happy memories for me. I hope you achieve a result that makes you happy.

[perdu]

Good idea about a blog, I'll look into that

As for the masking, it is what I have already done tonight and is what I usually do but I was wondering if there might be a different way

Best practised on little models I think, but I do want a nice model from this one

Like many of us I enjoyed this as a two bob model from F.W. Woolworth back when it came out in its little plastic bag and a header with a stripe across it and a basic drawing of an Antarctic on floats on it

Many happy days recalled in this little thing

edit to add : I still have one yellow float and a remnant of the tattered transfer sheet for WE600 in my bitsa box

Edited April 9, 2016 by perdu

[perdu]

Has anyone tried Shutterfly for image hosting? I do need to find a reasonably easy to use alternative

Edited April 10, 2016 by perdu

[Miggers]

Good idea about a blog, I'll look into that

As for the masking, it is what I have already done tonight and is what I usually do but I was wondering if there might be a different way

Best practised on little models I think, but I do want a nice model from this one

Like many of us I enjoyed this as a two bob model from F.W. Woolworth back when it came out in its little plastic bag and a header with a stripe across it and a basic drawing of an Antarctic on floats on it

Many happy days recalled in this little thing

edit to add : I still have one yellow float and a remnant of the tattered transfer sheet for WE600 in my bitsa box

I've got two of the last re-pop of the kit up in th'stash because I fancied doing a nice one for myself too.

[speedbird]

A very dear friend of mine owns a pet shop and sells dog foods and bird seeds in plasticky bags that she weighs out her self. To seal the bags she uses a very thin tape that comes in various colours. I scrounged a roll and it's great for simulating canopy frames. Simply lay a length on a cuttin board and cut strips to the desired width of the frames.lay these out on a cutting board and paint in the appropriate frame colour. When dry stick it in place on the canopy and cut to the required length. Once the framing is done seal the whole lot with a coat of klear. The tape is really thin and there is no real noticeable step where the frames cross over. This tape is also great for masking straight edges and being so thin it doesn't leave much of a step.. Ask any friendly shop keeper who bags their own goods if the can spare a ro or perhaps get you some.