Rob G Posted November 14, 2016 Author Share Posted November 14, 2016 As promised, photos. And the Gnat. More when there's something. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted November 29, 2016 Author Share Posted November 29, 2016 Colour is happening. So is overspray, but meh- it'll polish off. The yellow chromate is Tamiya Yellow-Green, the green chromate is a custom mix of yellow-green and a dark green from Gunze Sangyo. Seems to work. Some touch-ups to do on the undercarriage well rear face (representing the natural metal rear wing spar - har de har har) and bit of cleaning up where the paintbrush wandered. Getting there. I've just noticed the bare patches behind the portside cockpit... good old Humbrol paint isn't as tough as it used to be, obviously. More airbrushing... sigh. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modelling Mayhem Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Looking good mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted December 7, 2016 Author Share Posted December 7, 2016 It's moving along. Arthur Doley in micro form. His uniform is actually blue, but the white balance won't adjust far enough. Oh well. (He looks A LOT better in real life, where you can't focus as closely ) And here's some in-progress photos. Cockpit internals installed. And the canopy getting faired in. Perfect Plastic Putty is a Godsend for this task. Decals tonight (hopefully), then satin coat and the flat black cowling section and the addition of the dangly bits and she'll be done. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted December 14, 2016 Author Share Posted December 14, 2016 This afternoon, I threw my hands up in the air, muttered something unintelligible and decided that this thing was in as good a state as I was likely to get it. (Which doesn't mean that it's in a good state, it's just as good as I can get it.) I proceeded to cut out the decals. Very matte. Very out of register. Very ugly. I dropped the first one in the water and a bell started to ring in my head. I (figuratively) turned it off. It rang again, so I pulled the plug to shut it up properly. Here's a word of advice... If bells start ringing when you start to do something, PAY ATTENTION. As I sat and watched, the decal began to crack, until it resembled one of those ancient Chinese vases that you see in museums, all gently crazed. Certain words were spoken. Gently lifting it out of the water, I remembered (belatedly) that when I'd inspected the whole sheet, I'd seen some crazing on the decals and HAD DECIDED TO TOP COAT IT ALL WITH LIQUID DECAL FILM and then didn't. That's what the bell was, weren't it. Place is full of morons, and some of them (apparently) build models. What to do? I have a proper set of Dooleybird decals, but there's no way that they're going onto this turkey. I have managed to splice together what remains of the shattered markings and can probably repair the missing bits with paint after I add a top coat of liquid film. Or I bin the thing and get on with life. At this point, I'm going to attempt a repair (it's only the roundel and code letters...). Failing that, the bin beckons. More when there's some. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted January 15, 2017 Author Share Posted January 15, 2017 Right, this is 'finished', for a given value of 'finished'. I'm calling it done for GB purposes, anyway. Even after two good coats of decal film, the decals still shattered. It's a mess. I managed to jigsaw things up, but... yuk. Not very nice. As a result, the undercart is BluTacced on, the drop tanks are an interference fit in their mounts, the prop is PVAed in place and the canopy is still masked, because after the GB ends it'll all be stripped back and repainted in a scheme that I can steal from another P-51 kit. Oh well. The good side. The bad side. The ugly side. I had planned to attempt repairs, but the surface of the decals is crazed and lumpy, and the return isn't worth the effort. There won't be anything added to the gallery, for obvious reasons. That's it folks! (When I do the repaint, I'll post it here if anyone's interested.) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 That was a sympathetic 'like' Rob It was a noble effort but it just didn't come off - please do post when you have done the repaint. Cheers, Stew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted January 15, 2017 Author Share Posted January 15, 2017 Thanks Stew. This is what happens when one attempts 45 year old kits of unknown provenance. At least I (mostly) got it finished! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted January 29, 2017 Author Share Posted January 29, 2017 Oh dear. Oh dear, ohdear ohdearydearyme. 'They' say that age begets wisdom. Either 'they' are telling lies, or I'm into a 3rd childhood. Having duly stripped the wee beastie to Tamiya primer level (it's one of the few paints that are unaffected by oven cleaner), I looked at what was left and decided that it was hideous. Maggie Thatcher streaking at Lord's hideous (that'll put you off your Weet-Bix ) A multitude of surface scratches, improperly filled sink marks, missing raised panel detail... the only thing NOT wrong with it was the seam lines; they were all gone. I duly got out the IPA and set about taking it all back to bare plastique. No worries. Then the fill, sand, fill, sand, fill, sand routine started. It's been going on almost daily for 2 weeks. I decided to use sprue soup as my filler o'choice, partly to keep with the whole 'Matchbox kit as she was made back in the olden days' theme, and partly because I decided to rescribe various bits of the raised detail I was massacrin' in my attempt to make it look like a mini-Mustang instead of a wrinkled, lumpy hideous thing (see above comment re The Iron Lady), and sprue soup works bestest for that for me (run-on sentence, anyone?). I also got a little knife-happy and added depth and a radius to all the leading edges of the moving bits, because well... why the heck not, eh! In the midst of the farnarkling, I discovered a set of gen-you-wine Matchbox Dooleybird decals on the bay of Evil, going, if not for a song, at least for not very much. They looked OK in the photo, so I ordered them. They'll arrive at some point in the future. Hopefully. If they're not as good as they looked, at the very least I'll be able to scan them for use as master copies to print my own. <sigh> I've also ordered a Red Roo Aeroproducts prop set for this thing, and their Mustang Intake Louvre set, because again, why the heck not (actually, the louvres were ordered because I sanded away the little intake detail that Matchbox had added, and I'm blowed if I'm going to scribe or drill THAT bit of detail in.) I've been scribing gun and ammo access hatches into the otherwise smooth wing, and have decided to attempt Paul Budzik's method of showing panel lines 'in scale' ie a very light scribing through the top layer of paint to depict 'something there' as opposed to a deep score. Any of Matchbox's trenches that were there originally are still there, because this IS AN OOB MATCHBOX BUILD, INNIT! Sorry, I got a little emo there. Photos will follow when I finish the scribing. If nothing shows up, it's because the men in the white coats have visi..... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nimrod54 Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 6 hours ago, Rob G said: Maggie Thatcher streaking at Lord's hideous (that'll put you off your Weet-Bix You have just scarred me for life Rob. I will never be able to watch a Lords test again. Good luck with singing for the decals, but I suspect that you will have to 'and over the readies', evil bay'rs are a cash hungry bunch. I look forward to seeing the remodelled version. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 Well I still think it's a great job done Rob! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted January 30, 2017 Author Share Posted January 30, 2017 @nimrod54 sorry 'bout that. Far be it from me to deny a man the pleasure of wasting his life away. @stevej60 thank you. Hopefully the 'new and improved' version will be well... new and improved. Or at least marginally better. Just to show you how a complete numpty manages to scribe things, here's a template, in place and securely clamped with a pair of cheap, dodgy paper clip whatsits. And the other side, wot I 'prepared earlier'. The black stuff is permanent marker, which I used to check the smoothness of the area that needed filling. As can be seen, it wasn't smooth. Is now though. The angled line near the flap should be parallel to the flap hinge, but something's screwy with the wing shape, methinks - the other side is just about perfect. I could fill it all in and juggle things around, but.... no. I'll save that sort of effort for the Airfix kit I'm building in the same scheme. And another view of the (amazingly for me) mostly successful scribing. Because I'm well chuffed with it. Yes, it's quite wide and deep; there's a method to my madness. After I'd done it initially, using the back of a #11 blade, it was quite delicate and looked very modern and up-to-date. And wrong. So I imitated Mr Matchbox's well known trench digger, and excavated some more plastic until it looked 'right' for the rest of the model, hopefully somewhat imitative of the way Mr Matchbox would've done it if he'd done it right when it was done originally, instead of the truly 'orrible raised lines that were there. It is possibly a little too well defined, but oh well. The apprentice navvy was a better tradesman than his master. I'm thinking of making more templates for the hand- and toe holds and things, in imitation of later Matchbox practice, where major panel lines are indicated with major 'detail'. Or maybe I won't. With a bit of luck, I'll be able to undercoat this shortly, and get back on some sort of track. Updates as and when. TY for looking. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 If I had read this earlier, I would have sent you my 80's vintage Matchbox decals free. Sorry! Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted January 30, 2017 Author Share Posted January 30, 2017 No worries Chris. I'll keep you in mind for just in case. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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