The EDSG Files # 2: Fairey Barracuda 1/72

[71chally]

12 hours ago, TheBaron said:

I'm just praying you don't work in Air Traffic Control....

Umm, I cant remember if I've told you what I do, and I don't like to use the word work too frivolously, but yes I work in Air Traffic Control!

[CedB]

I'm loving this project Tony - the Bara and Maureen are looking very, very good.

Good luck with the roundels. I'd bookmarked some stuff on this that might be useful:

 

 

Cookie's roundels using the Pmask templates.

My attempt also using the Pmasks.

I think it's pretty straightforward and I think my idea of a piece of tape across the masks to keep the alignment helped a lot.

Can't wait to see the results!

[TheBaron]

6 hours ago, 71chally said:

Umm, I cant remember if I've told you what I do, and I don't like to use the word work too frivolously, but yes I work in Air Traffic Control!

Oh bloody hell! And there's me distratcing you from work James. I suddenly feel uncomfortably like this guy...

6 hours ago, CedB said:

I'm loving this project Tony - the Bara and Maureen are looking very, very good.

Good luck with the roundels. I'd bookmarked some stuff on this that might be useful:

Thanks for that Ced. Those links are most timely. Your tape idea was a positive lifesaver!

 

So, with steely resolve it was up and at the roundels. Cool head, methodology, measuring. The whole shebang:

What was that you said earlier? About the circle compass only going down to 10mm. And needing a hole punch for anything smaller. Was I listening? Did it not click when I measured the above out? Well, eventually. I don't have a punch set. I've one on order from Hong Kong but when I hurriedly checked online it's now 10 days overdue so presumably lost in transition.... 

 

What to do? Let's for a moment pretend there's no impending crisis and go for a BIG WIN. Good news - the compass cutter is brilliant! The main roundels took all of 2-3 minutes to have ready:

Brimming with confidence, like George C.Scott as Patton I forged on sweeping all sense aside as I decided to build my own tool. Take one

 normal compass and glue a compass cutter blade to it thusly:

It will close down to let me cut circles less that the 10 mm now:

A HuuUUUGGGeTrump-style win eh? Is it heck. Like the plans of tangerine braggart himself it immediately collapses into recrimination. There is just an outside chance that there is a bone-fide reason you don't get many compass cutters going down below the 10mm mark:

...as the required radius makes it nigh on impossible to cut a clean circle any smaller than this in the hands of someone like me. I'd be fooling no-one with the above if I used them so they're all binned.

 

By now I was in full Count Arthur Strong mode so still ranting I thought I might assay a more modest attempt save face by using the tail flash decals as a template for making masks. Ah. How wrong I was. The the masking pulled the blasted decals off:

I currently have no masks and shredded decals. Deep breath. Make them separately via measurement:

Honour restored. Ready to rock that tail:

At this point I decide it's a good idea to pour a restorative coffee into the bloodstream, sitting at the bench and wondering how to put a thumb on Mo as the caffeine revives the jaded modeller.  Break over I look around for the flash masks. Nowhere to be found! 10 minutes' patient scanning of the desk yields no clueas to their whereabouts until I happen to look down and see both masks scrunched up in a ball on the elbow of my cardigan. This is comedy gold, you can't write this stuff. Having gone from Patton to Mr. Bean in the space of 30 minutes, I just decided that fate was against me and to take stock.

 

Masks for wing roundels:

Check.

 

Roundels for fuselage. No. In the absence of a hole punch I'll stick with the decals.

Tail flash: not today.

 

Spray Away!

Red mixed from Flat Red & NATO Brown, blue from fFlat Blue with a hint of Flat Black:

Ooh look. A bloody great fingerprint near the wing root to touch up, otherwise what I'd broadly hoped for as a surface finish o nthe roundel A little bit of bleed from the white undercoat to touch-up on both and some post-shade needed on the blue of the starboard rne, but otherwise I'm reasonably content with that on a first outing:

I don't see too much disparity between the mottling of the roundels and that of the main paintwork; from a viewing distance they seem to complement each other ok in this raw state.

So. What have I learned today: The combination of Tamiya masking sheet and compass cutter are excellent and give top results for the wing ones. At 1/72 though some of the roundels need on the fuselage are sub-10mm and so small that I will in future be resorting to pre-cut masks (thanks for the PMask link Ced btw!) for such elements. 

 

I'll leasve the masking on the canopy until I've finished varnishing, weathering and matt coating, but that doesn't mean that I can't impatiently whip-off the masking for the upper/lower demarcation:

That strut broke with a little snick at the point where they were cut to length earlier in the build, so a little gluing to be done later. No apparent bleeds elsewhere

Other side fine also:

Rest ye there for a few days now whilst I stiffen the sinews for another go at the tail flash during the week:

A little bit of Micromeshing as well won't hurt.

 

Thanks for reading all this nonsense.

Tony

 

 

[CedB]

Nonsense? What nonsense? This sort of thing is my LIFE nowadays!  

Comedy gold on the flash masks indeed - a new 'monster' to look out for.

Great work on the roundels Tony - they look very good and SO much better than the transfers. You'll have that white covered in no time.

Good stuff  

[71chally]

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

Brimming with confidence, like George C.Scott as Patton I forged on sweeping all sense aside as I decided to build my own tool.

I was thinking more as General Bucky Turgidson before describing blast off to Miss Scott!

 

 

I'm absolutely in awe of your paint work, both the camo and the national markings, what else can I say.  Nice to get modelling tips as well, but I doubt I have the talent and resolve that you clearly have for it!

 

 

PS, our computor faces to the back of the tower, so when BM'g I wouldn't be distracted by the impending carnage out front

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Dot-filters.....Once you've got klear on the model, add a few teeny-tiny dots of moderately random oil colours , then spread them out almost to nothingness using a brush lightly loaded with thinners (best to drag everything out in line with the airflow). 

 

They'll subtly alter the hue of the area where they settle and add even more variety to the surface.....Probably best to Google a better description, but that's the nub of it. 

 

The new roundels look the business to me.....That's another thing I'm going to have to try. 

[Phil Lewis]

Not sure if this would work but if you apply the mask and the spray a light coat of the background colour around the edge of the mask any bleed under will be the base colour and it should prevent the white and subsequent colours from bleeding under the edge of the mask.

Been watching these builds with awe whilst attempting to recuperate.

[TheBaron]

3 hours ago, CedB said:

Great work on the roundels Tony - they look very good and SO much better than the transfers. You'll have that white covered in no time.

Good stuff  

Thanks for your help on them Ced, it made a daunting task more amenable for sure sir. . I don't relish being stymied by circumstances so have just ordered a cheap set of punches: if they arrive by next weekend I'll have another bash at those fuselage roundels, otherwise it's old-school decals for the Barra-boy.

2 hours ago, 71chally said:

I'm absolutely in awe of your paint work, both the camo and the national markings, what else can I say.  Nice to get modelling tips as well, but I doubt I have the talent and resolve that you clearly have for it!

 

 

PS, our computor faces to the back of the tower, so when BM'g I wouldn't be distracted by the impending carnage out front

You're most kind James, but if a hack like me can daub a bit of plastic it's only because of the knowledge people have shared with me so generously on here. That and the fact that they've routinely helped me drain the bank account each month, depriving my heirs of any inheritance...

 

I'm sure that your PS. will come as a welcome comfort to the travelling public.

1 hour ago, Phil Lewis said:

Not sure if this would work but if you apply the mask and the spray a light coat of the background colour around the edge of the mask any bleed under will be the base colour and it should prevent the white and subsequent colours from bleeding under the edge of the mask.

Been watching these builds with awe whilst attempting to recuperate.

Hi Phil! 

That tip sounds most elegant and worth trying. I'll give it an outing on my next burst of roundelry. I'm sorry to hear you've been unwell, my warmest wishes and most positive of vibes for a rapid recuperation sir.

[TheBaron]

2 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Dot-filters.....Once you've got klear on the model, add a few teeny-tiny dots of moderately random oil colours , then spread them out almost to nothingness using a brush lightly loaded with thinners (best to drag everything out in line with the airflow). 

 

They'll subtly alter the hue of the area where they settle and add even more variety to the surface.....Probably best to Google a better description, but that's the nub of it. 

 

The new roundels look the business to me.....That's another thing I'm going to have to try. 

Thanks for that Sarge. I shall now be mounting a raid on Mrs.B's oil paint box that will make Seal Team Six weep in envy. 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Have fun! 

 

 

[keefr22]

Tony, have you got a circle template, or even better a metal scribing template with small circles on? I've had some success in the past cutting small circle masks using one by 'scribing' them out with a sharp needle. You need to take it slowly, & I find the metal scribing templates, being thinner, usually give a bit better circle...

 

Have no idea where little T is tonight, off terrorising the neighbours I imagine...

 

Keith

[rob85]

12 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Thanks for that Sarge. I shall now be mounting a raid on Mrs.B's oil paint box that will make Seal Team Six weep in envy. 

Hope you have grown a big beard, can't do a raid without one nowadays.... they are all the rage

 

Rob

[Tomoshenko]

ooh er that's looking bostin' mate. Like the compass cutter. Will remember that one. Reminds me of my old school days and Technical Drawing lessons - minus lots of compass holes in the paper, "weathered" paper by way of pencil smudges and not keeping my squares clean and a "furry" effect due to lots of rubbings out

[The Spadgent]

The masked marauder strikes again, Excellent work. Honestly the woolen elbow monster now is it.m? Distant cousin of the sock monster brother of our old friend and foe the carpet m... you get the picture.  Those rounders look great, have a well earned break and come back fresh. Stunning stuff as always dude.

 

John.

[cocky05d]

11 hours ago, 71chally said:

Umm, I cant remember if I've told you what I do, and I don't like to use the word work too frivolously, but yes I work in Air Traffic Control!

May flies never land on your screen .

[Martian]

On ‎11‎/‎02‎/‎2017 at 13:26, TheBaron said:

Of course I haven't had Maureen in the cockpit. 

You could have put that better!

 

I go away for a few days and come back to find the Barra transformed! Perhaps I should go away more often!

 

Martian

[TheBaron]

20 hours ago, keefr22 said:

Tony, have you got a circle template, or even better a metal scribing template with small circles on? I've had some success in the past cutting small circle masks using one by 'scribing' them out with a sharp needle. You need to take it slowly, & I find the metal scribing templates, being thinner, usually give a bit better circle...

 

Have no idea where little T is tonight, off terrorising the neighbours I imagine...

Thanks Keith. I'm going to have a little try of that when get home this evening - I've a Verlinden template that might answer to the task. Nice one! I hope little T returned safe. With or without a neighbours' leg...

20 hours ago, Tomoshenko said:

ooh er that's looking bostin' mate. Like the compass cutter. Will remember that one. Reminds me of my old school days and Technical Drawing lessons - minus lots of compass holes in the paper, "weathered" paper by way of pencil smudges and not keeping my squares clean and a "furry" effect due to lots of rubbings out

Cheers for that Tomo. Distressed to hear your 'rubbings-out' made things furry. Puberty was a tough time for all of us....

19 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

The masked marauder strikes again, Excellent work. Honestly the woolen elbow monster now is it.m? Distant cousin of the sock monster brother of our old friend and foe the carpet m... you get the picture.  Those rounders look great, have a well earned break and come back fresh. Stunning stuff as always dude.

Haha! Sockmonster vs. Elbowbeast. Most idionsycratic monster movie ever. Thanks for your kind thoughts.

19 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

You could have put that better!

That's what she said! 

19 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

I go away for a few days and come back to find the Barra transformed! Perhaps I should go away more often!

Only so long as you promise to return to Earth at regular intervals esteemed life-form. Your tentacular musings are missed by us poor Earthlings...

Tony

[TheBaron]

I had a desultory fiddle last with the gentle scribing technique that Keith had suggested for getting circular masks smaller than that possible with the compass cutter:

Not perfect, but enough that  I was prepared to give it a whirl to see what results it could give. The two outer circles in the photo were done with the compass cutter at 6mm and 5.5mm radii respectively. The inner circle is 2.7mm radii and about the limit of what i found possible with the Verlinden template and a pin:

For the fuselage roundel I'll have to resort to the decal red dot from the kit sheet, the tails flash was just measured and cut separately, given my previous disaster at tracing. Ready to apply using Ced's tape method:

The fuselage mask prepped for the initial white coat:

You really need to make sure the mask is peeled back enough at this stage to avoid overspraylanding all over the sticky side of the mask. (I know this how?)

With the white added you can see why I was less than enthusiastic about having to do the tail flash - butted-up under the tailplane and behind a strut makes for fluent obscenity both in getting the mask applied, and in the successive removal and painting stages. Not ideal but certainly a test of character - in my case equal parts irascibility to trepidation. Once dried, yellow for the outer (at this cale 1mm wide) band for the roundel, and red on the tail flash:

I should have orange-d out that yellow some more than I did but it will have to suffice now.

With the blues added you can see my paranoiac style in model-masking. I laso remembered to touch up the blue on the starboard roundel along the leading edge. Starboard reveal first:

Roundel ok, but some touching-up to do on the flash. Port next:

The reverse this time - the flash is ok apart from that white bleed at the top, but the roundelneeds some attention to blue and white boundaries (the 11 o'clock and 3 o'clock positions primarily). I had a feeling the roundel on this side wouldn't be as neat as its companion as you could feel the masking sheet was slightly more fibrous when cutting and scribing the mask - an interesting lesson in the variability of texture within a single Tamiya masking sheet. I have to say the sheet generally adheres really well.

 

At 1/72 I'm happy enough with this as a first go with painting decals. They're not perfect by any means, but with some micromeshing to blend them into the general fuselage appearance, the result first-time out feels satisfying:

The flashes are maybe a mm or so higher on the tail than they should be perhaps, largely as a result of trying to mask and airbrush in that confined space under the tailplane:

The missing paint is no reflection on the masking sheet but my clumsiness with masking tape around it. Nothing that can't be touched up (along with now both tailplane struts needing gluing, but then you probably anticipated that happening yourselves!)

 

Given my failure to significantly damage the aircraft whilst doing the above, I sense that this is slowly but surely entering the final stages of  the build. Not imminently, but close enough that I can see myself sticking bits on again soon and making decisions about how much and where any weathering needs attending to. Maureen need finishing of course, and I need to have a look at those extra bits that need to go into the engine bay around the engine, handles and fairings for the canopy and so forth.

 

If you told back when I started this in October we'd be nearing Spring and still going, I'd have probably opted for something simpler like a 1/24 scratch build of a B-36....but then I remind myself this is Fleet Air Arm, and the time seems well spent after all.

 

Tony

 

[Cookenbacher]

Excellent paint work and both the camo and the roundels Tony. Impressive work on the 'C' type fuselage roundels. You'll be glad when the punch set arrives (especially handy for making wheel masks).

[rob85]

Very nice work Tony, something I have never tried, worry's me to be honest! I think you are a much more technical and methodical man than I.

 

Rob

[71chally]

2 hours ago, TheBaron said:

I'd have probably opted for something simpler like a 1/24 scratch build of a B-36..

Tony

 

There's plenty of time Tony!

 

How you manage your time to work in such detail and quality, photographing and writing these posts, and do the family and work thing is beyond me.

Add to that, that you've recently returned to modelling after a long break.

I've still not managed to return to the bench since Christmas!

 

Simply superb work!

[TheBaron]

2 hours ago, Cookenbacher said:

Excellent paint work and both the camo and the roundels Tony. Impressive work on the 'C' type fuselage roundels. You'll be glad when the punch set arrives (especially handy for making wheel masks).

Thanks for that Cookie. I see a whole new vista filled with circular opportunities opening up before me now...

1 hour ago, rob85 said:

Very nice work Tony, something I have never tried, worry's me to be honest! I think you are a much more technical and methodical man than I.

You've very kind Rob. I've always been rather stubborn and tend to plug away at things until I sense I can't get them any better than I have. This compensates for the part of me the rushes in and does daft things like folding Barras and Milliput Maureens. In such ways is the karma of the universe kept in equilibrium.

40 minutes ago, 71chally said:

There's plenty of time Tony!

 

How you manage your time to work in such detail and quality, photographing and writing these posts, and do the family and work thing is beyond me.

Add to that, that you've recently returned to modelling after a long break.

I've still not managed to return to the bench since Christmas!

Ta v. much James. I'm rather lucky in 1) Mrs. B is an understanding soul who knows an obsession when she sees it,  2) Both our boys are teenagers now so no longer require constant attention - to whit I mean I'm an increasing embarrassment now to be seen with, and 3) I wantonly neglect all domesticity to the utmost. Both myself and Mrs. B come from small families so we aren't accursed by a large circle of relatives dropping in either. 

 

Like I suspect many people on here, modelling is also for me a way of claiming a part of the world back from a stressful job. I find within five minutes of sitting at the bench I've switched off from work and drifted imperceptibly into that funny half-zen state we get into gluing and painting small bits of stuff to look like bigger bits of stuff.

 

I hope you get some time in yourself soon - I really want to see that Shack!

 

After fuelling up on tuna and steamed vegetable for tea (herself and myself are currently on that two-day-a-week no carbs gig) I ducked back in to tidy up the earlier paint work, viz. the yellow band on the port roundel is now equal all the way around:

and the starboard tail-flash has the white bleed taken care of:

My new must-have accessory this season? Nail art brushes:

A euro in the err, euro shop and just perfect for small scale jobs like roundel re-painting. At that price they don't have to last forever. Temperate Sea Scheme nails anyone?

 

 

[Procopius]

I like those international assassin-style gloves you have there, Tony.

[CedB]

Marvellous stuff Tony - they really look the part, especially after the Micro-meshing. Fine job there Sir 

 

I must put some of those nail brushes on the shopping list - they look very handy.

 

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

Like I suspect many people on here, modelling is also for me a way of claiming a part of the world back from a stressful job. I find within five minutes of sitting at the bench I've switched off from work and drifted imperceptibly into that funny half-zen state we get into gluing and painting small bits of stuff to look like bigger bits of stuff.

 

Quite! Seconded from me  

[moaning dolphin]

Blinkety flip young man, slow down! One minute we are talking hairstyles and next catch up we are painting decals! Maybe I should catch up more often! Marvelous attempt at those roundals, I doff my hat off to you, not had the courage to try that before. Saw the near disaster with the fin flash, if you stick the tape on some clear acetate and then lay that over the decal it would prevent the decal damage. You would just have to make sure the decal sheet was securely attached to the acetate (without causing damage to the decal sheet of course!) to prevent slippage. I will have to have a look in the dollar store for those brushes, they look dead handy.

 

Going to blink now and half expecting this build to be finished!

 

Bob