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Mig 15 Scratchbuild


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So...following on from the last posting - I now have an airframe shape that I am happy with and a nice smooth surface.

 

It's time to give this model some panel lines.  I have seen wooden models without panel lines and accept that some models are more accurate without them, (or at least with very few) but in 1/48 scale I think that models without them tend to look a bit 'sparse' so I will be putting them on.

 

The first task is to mark them up and that is what this posting will cover.  Here are the tools I use; yet another set of plans, a good-quality mechanical pencil and eraser, a good set of dividers, scissors, steel rule and dymo tape.  Also used, but not shown here, are some pins and a small amount of blue-tack.

 

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The trickiest part is getting an accurate start. One needs to be able to identify an accurately placed reference point that can be identified both on the plans and on the model. in this case, after lining up the plans as accurately as I could against the wing plan-form I used a pin to mark the exact location of the outboard end of the flap's leading edge.

IMG_3509

 

With the pin (and a bit of blue-tack) holding the plans still, we can identify and mark where various panel lines cross the leading edge.

IMG_3504

 

Using the dividers, the pin-mark reference point and the marks on the leading edge we can start scaling off and marking in some of the more prominent panel lines.

IMG_3507

 

These lines were positioned using the dividers but drawn using the steel-rule as a straight-edge.

IMG_3508

 

 

As the job progresses it becomes easier to scale off subsequent lines - in this case I am measuring off the width of the aileron.

IMG_3527

 

Here you can see how aligning the plans accurately against the wing plan-form can allow the first panel lines to be plotted onto the fuselage. You will be pleased to know that I rubbed out that rather messy line next to the pilot and did it again. 

IMG_3503

 

Dymo tape provides a great straight-edge when working on curved surfaces. (Here it is white-on-white, but I think it still visible enough to post).

IMG_3505

 

The process continues across the whole airframe. The process gets through a lot of dymo tape!

IMG_3528

 

When working around tight curves, such as the air intake, I use scissors to cut 'feathers' in the tape. This helps it to work around the contour.

IMG_3501

 

And this is the result.  A Mig 15 with all of the major panel lines drafted up and ready for scribing.

IMG_3532

 

 

Just a quick note to Sovereign Hobbies.  I have looked into fibreglass skinning and discussed with the local hobby shop at some length. Have bought some Deluxe Materials, 'Eze-Kote' laminating and finishing resin that the guy reckoned would give a 'glass-like' finish to the model.  It looks good in the bottle but I am not going to use it on this particular model for two reasons:

 

1 - I decided when I started this that I would try to reproduce the kind of work I did when I was a kid.

2 - I have not had a chance to play with the stuff and find out exactly how to use it and what it does.

 

I am determined however to be a bit more adventurous in my next build and intend to use it next time around - it is supposed to be very good on balsa so I might even be able to use some on the next build.

 

Next time - the scribing of the panel lines begins!  it's a fraught process, and there's no room for error thanks to this NMF madness that I am about to attempt.

 

TTFN - Reconcilor

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks Hendie, have just had another look at your fantastic Lysander build. You might be interested to hear that You have convinced me to have a go with 'brass rod and a little solder'.  This build has its gear up, but I'm thinking my next project will be sitting firmly on soldered brass undercarriage. There's always something new to try 🤔

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This is fantastic! I use the odd bit of balsa myself but harder woods have always defeated me. It's coming along wonderfully well.

 

If I might suggest, you might want to put the pilot in later next time - he must be getting tired of having his helmet sanded off!

 

Regards,

Adrian

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Yes - good point Adrian. The pilot went in far too early and has nearly had his head knocked off a couple of times!  😳  Stll, I have no sympathy for him as I am not a communist sympathiser! 😜

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So, would now be a good time to recommend using either self adhesive foil or hd kitchen foil with spray glue on the back as your surface finish? An adept such as yourself may cut pieces the size and shape to meet those carefully drafted lines. 

See you this weekend? 

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Hello  VanRoonatic! 😀  Yes, definitely there this weekend!  Will discuss metal foil and the various options it presents Saturday. Was planning on using foil for selected surface details, mostly because it is thin and conforms to curves well. Was going to use a variety of metallic enamels for the rest of the surface but happy to consider any alternative suggestions. 

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27 minutes ago, Reconcilor said:

Hello  VanRoonatic! 😀  Yes, definitely there this weekend!  Will discuss metal foil and the various options it presents Saturday. Was planning on using foil for selected surface details, mostly because it is thin and conforms to curves well. Was going to use a variety of metallic enamels for the rest of the surface but happy to consider any alternative suggestions. 

I'll dig around for samples. BMF is good on plastic, but for your medium I think heavier foil may fill the bill. 

Van Rooniac 

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16 hours ago, Reconcilor said:

You might be interested to hear that You have convinced me to have a go with 'brass rod and a little solder'.  

 

Nice !   I'm glad I finally suckered  persuaded someone else to try out soldering.  It's really not as hard as it looks, and the great thing is, that you can load the solder on, and it's easy to file off the excess afterwards.

 

Regarding the NMF finish, I think Vanroon's suggestion may be worth trying out.  I had intended to try using heavy aluminum foil on the Lysander cowling to replicate the usual dings and dents that are commonly found on those things - see  this link here (photo near bottom of post)

I never got to try it out due to how the build progressed but I think it is certainly worth trying out on your build. It's easy enough to tear it off if it doesn't work

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello,

 

Time for another look at this project. Sorry that it's been such a long time since the last posting, I might be able to get back on track a bit better now.

 

Now before I start, I have been looking back through my previous posts and have noted that they appear to be becoming more and more of a 'tutorial' or something. Too often they are reading like me trying to 'teach you all something that you had better damned well learn!'.  For this I apologise - I think that writing as if I'm teaching is just an easy way of covering the material. I say it again - I have no claim to serious expertise in this field and am largely just fumbling through the process and passing on what I find out - nothing will prove that better than this post.

 

Panel line etching.

 

I've been dreading this - because I never really this got this sorted when I was a kid and my results were always a bit hit and miss.  So this post is all about experimenting.

 

Here are the different tools I have tried out on this task.

 

IMG_3781

 

As I have two young daughters I am hoping that word gets out to the local male populous that I have hobbies that involve skilled use of sharp implements...

 

Anyhow - a quick summary of each tool

 

THE PEN - a 0.5mm sharp tip biro.  The thought here was that I could etch the panel line just by drawing over the pencil mark-up with this pen - press hard - leave a groove - viola.  I don't think it worked too well as the groove left in the plywood seemed to soften and 'self heal' over time and a pen isn't hard enough to leave a dent in Jarrah.

 

THE OLFA CUTTER - absolutely useless when using it as 'pull tool' as you would drawing a thin twisting thread of  plastic - the wood fibres just tear and rip out -  but not too bad when pushing away (using the thing 'backwards' as it were). It tends to leave a fairly thick 'trench' though - so perhaps best for control surface outlines?

 

 

IMG_3539

 

 

 

THE CHISELS - Surprisingly easy to control and practical - and great fun to watch the alarmed look on your model building buddie's face when he sees it the first time. Thanks Wayne - I was genuinely touched by your misplaced concern! The chisel can either be used as a cutting implement by dragging the cutting edge along the panel line, or just pressed in to make a single short slot or it can be 'rocked' so that lines running (let's say) around the fuselage can be cut evenly. 

 

IMG_3600

 

THE SCALPEL / No11 blade - Not bad. Use a fresh blade with a sharp tip -  it will cut a fine single slot and promises a tidy line (it's also cheap and readily available) but do note that the blade will wander and requires careful guidance and control. Use a straight edge or dymo tape to guide it and start with very gentle cuts until the cut itself starts to guide the blade.

 

IMG_3555

  I think it's the best tool for cutting panel lines with tight curves such as the one the fuselage panel lines just ahead of the tail fin.

 

IMG_3544

 

THE PIN - Really good - especially for starting lines off when other tools might wander - I cut a lot of these lines using dymo tape as a guide, a pin to start the slot and then finish with a scalpel. That combination worked quite well.

 

THE CRAFT KNIFE REFILL BLADE - Really good especially because it can be broken into different lengths to quite closely match the scale of the cut that you want to make. Use it like a small (slightly awkward) razor blade (see below).

 

THE RAZOR BLADE - The best tool I have found for this work! Very hard to find now in this world of disposable cassette razors. I found mine in a hardware store in use as a blade for a 'scaper' tool.

 

IMG_3783

 

This tool has many advantages. It's about the right size for easy handling. it's razor sharp (geddit? 'razor sharp!' ha ha!) and it makes a beautiful clean cut. It is also to a degree 'self guiding'.  Here I'm using the razor blade to cut a panel at the base of the tail. I'm not using dymo tape, or any other guide since the blade is long and skinny and can only slide forward and backward along it's own 'long axis' - that's what I mean by 'self guiding' it can really only cut a straight line parallel to it's own original orientation.

IMG_3787

 

 

To cut panel lines that wrap around the fuselage or wing etc you easily 'rock this blade back and forth' and make a beautiful even cut. Here's a photo of what I'm on about...

 

IMG_3790

 

So - a conclusion?  All of these tools have their 'plusses and minuses' - but had I found the razor blade and the craft knife replacement blades first I don't think I would have experimented quite so much. In future I will start this task with a razor blade, a craft knife blade (as shown) a pin and a scalpel (mostly for use on curves). The rest I will keep in mind.

 

The other thing I found is that with this job you need to cut the fibres of the wood - not just press them to one side or make a dent - you need to slice the wood - really sharp cutting implements therefore proved the most useful.

 

IMG_3796

And here is the result - It doesn't look that different to last time does it!  Which is a bit disappointing because the process is quite time-consuming.

 

Unfortunately not all of the details on an aircraft's surface are straightforward panel lines. Next post will hopefully see some further surface detail going on. I'm rather excited about this next one because I think I might have come up with something quite original to try out and if it works I will be 'stoked' as they say down here in the land of Oz.

 

Best Regards,

Reconcilor...

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4 minutes ago, Vanroon said:

Tickle

Hi Van Roon.  Had to do a test posting before I started writing my latest 'masterpiece' as for some reason the 'reply to topic' function on the current page (bottom of page 3) was not responding when I clicked on it. I had to write the post on 'page two'. Wanted to check that the new post would go to the right spot in the thread, which it did so no harm done😀 Perhaps one of our esteemed 'mods' could throw some light on this slightly odd behaviour on page 3.  (Oh Errr, sounds a bit rude!) 

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49 minutes ago, Reconcilor said:

And here is the result - It doesn't look that different to last time does it!  Which is a bit disappointing because the process is quite time-consuming.

 

it's all these *little* time consuming things that lift a model out of the ordinary.   They may not be immediately noticeable or in-your-face when you first look at the model - but if they weren't there, you be staring at it wondering why it didn't look quite right

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An earlier-than-expected posting this time.  Just a quick update on the arrival of the decals for this project. I placed an order with Hannants a bit over a week ago and they arrived today. Well done Hannants - very quick service and very well-wrapped both waterproof and rigid.

 

So now I am committed; this is going to be a Korean War Mig15 in natural metal finish, flown by a Russian pilot.

 

IMG_3810

 

These decals are produced by 'H models' and I must say they look superb in all regards - I am really looking forward to getting this project to the point where I can apply these.

 

IMG_3813

 

 

 

IMG_3812

This is the selected aircraft - flown by Captain Sergei Kramarenko a Russian ace in WW2 and a highly regarded squadron commander in Korea.

 

 

Here is his autobiography. I love the title - 'Air Combat Over the Eastern Front and Korea' - typically Russian; factual, no-nonsense, to the point!  It's a great book, giving the reader a glimpse into the mindsets and tactics that allowed some pilots to survive and operate with confidence in an environment where the possibility of death was so close at all times. It also highlights that fact that by the end of WW2 and throughout the Korean War the Russian pilots were of the opinion (rightly or wrongly) that their aircraft were second to none.

IMG_3818

 

When I saw that one of Sergei's jets was an option on this decal sheet I felt a renewed Sergei of enthusiasm for the project and ordered the set straight away!

 

OK, that's it for now - I'm actually going to go and do some work on this project  rather than just sitting here writing very bad puns.  As I stated at the end of the last update, I am working on what I think might be a new technique for surface detailing (it's new to me anyway) so stay-tuned because if it works I might get very excited in the next post!

 

Best Regards,

Reconcilor

 

 

 

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At the end of the one of my recent posts I said I was going to try out something new, and that if it worked I would be 'stoked'.

 

Well I am happy to report that I am now 'stoked'.

 

I have dreamed up (what for me at least is) a new technique and I reckon it's worked pretty well. The aim was to get the remaining '2D' surface detail onto the model - all of the access panels and hatches, the undercarriage doors and so forth without having to do endless hours of detailed panel-line scribing.  Panel line scribing is fine (as discussed above) but I only ever want to do that for actual construction panels not all of the other little 'bits and bobs'. So here's what I've done - and I reckon it worked pretty well.

 

Get the following items together; a cut-out of your plans containing all the detail you want to represent, a laminator, a laminating sleeve, a sheet of paper and some scissors.

IMG_3610

 

Place the plans on top of the paper (in this case brown paper) and place both the plans and the additional sheet of paper into the laminating sleeve. 

 

IMG_3615

Laminate them - make sure that the laminator is at full working temp. You might want to pass the lamination through the process twice just to make sure that the 'weld' is good and strong.

 

IMG_3618

Cut around the plans as shown removing all of the plastic sleeve that has been welded to itself.

 

Peel the plan from the backing paper - in reality it will just fall off because there is no weld at all between the plan and the backing paper

IMG_3623

 

And now you have this - a half laminated perfect 1:48 scale plot of the all of the surface detail on your model.

IMG_3628

 

Now you can take a knife or a set of scissors and just cut out all of the details that you want to stick onto the model. The plastic gives each part strength, definition and a smooth surface shine that would probably be lacking if you just used paper cut-outs.

IMG_3828

 

Grab some PVA and stick the bits on where they should go! 'Simples' as they say.

IMG_3846

 

Here's the underside with the undercarriage covers done and a few other 2D bits and pieces. the individual panels on the undercarriage covers are cut separately so there will be a visible panel line between each part when it's finished. The rivets (if that's what they are) that are visible on the plans are easily reproduced with a sharp pin or a punch. 

IMG_3869

I really like this method as it is quick, accurate and simple.

 

There are three major advantages with only laminating one half of the paper:

 

Firstly the thickness of the part is reduced keeping it as close as possible to flush with the airframe - using this method the surface detail will stand slightly proud of the background surface but I've done the maths and the scale thickness is less than one centimeter and I can live with that.

 

Secondly, as the surface that is stuck to the airframe is paper the PVA really grips it and the pieces are very securely stuck on.

 

Thirdly, the cut-out parts are very flexible (much more so than when double laminated) and will conform to almost any shape.

 

Here's a view of port-side airbrake.

IMG_3868

 

 

And here is the current state of play for this project.

IMG_3872

 

I can't wait to start painting this - but there's still a few steps to go - armament, cine-camera and tailplanes being the main ones.

 

Tailplanes next I think...

Edited by Reconcilor
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Hello,

Really enjoying this project.  I've had a little luck using this razor saw scribing on plastic.  Straight lines, of course, and it works well after removing the blade from the handle.

Finding one might be a problem (on eBay).

 

Cheers,

 

Dennis

 

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=LIGgaj9r&id=A05827B3F00223FC1460AB11446424FF3A4176A3&q=razor+saw&simid=608044298177677751&selectedIndex=89&ajaxhist=0

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Loving this project. It's a real eye opener and an entertaining watch. Am I alone in wondering if you still have all your own fingers considering the

number of different knives and blades you are using:D. Keep up the fine work.

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6 hours ago, DMC said:

Hello,

Really enjoying this project.  I've had a little luck using this razor saw scribing on plastic.  Straight lines, of course, and it works well after removing the blade from the handle.

Finding one might be a problem (on eBay).

 

Cheers,

 

Dennis

 

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=LIGgaj9r&id=A05827B3F00223FC1460AB11446424FF3A4176A3&q=razor+saw&simid=608044298177677751&selectedIndex=89&ajaxhist=0

Hi DMC, thanks for the suggestion. There's a guy here in Perth who specialises in retailing small tools for model building and craft work etc. I'll have a chat to him about this next time I see him.

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14 hours ago, mackem01 said:

Loving this project. It's a real eye opener and an entertaining watch. Am I alone in wondering if you still have all your own fingers considering the

number of different knives and blades you are using:D. Keep up the fine work.

Yes, can still count to ten! It's the bandsaw that really scares me with regard to fingers! Give myself a little 'safety talk' every time I start the thing!. 

So pleased to hear you are enjoying this, it's great to know people are watching, it goes a long way to keeping me motivated and focused on the project .

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Hello, this thread is a belated discovery for me, but as soon as I found it I was enthralled!  Have now read through in full. Fascinating.

 

One small contribution I can make in response to one of your earlier queries:

 

On 31/12/2016 at 3:36 PM, Reconcilor said:

If anyone has a better alternative to PVA for attaching the paper, something that doesn't leave this mess, I'm keen to hear about it.

 

I have had success with adhesive labels for a desktop printer.  Avery - the company that makes all those sticky labels for envelopes & the like - also have in their extensive range A4 whole sheet labels. One giant printable sticker. They have one type each for laser or inkjet printers.  It's important to be sure to get the 'removable' type:

 

http://www.averyproducts.com.au/avery/en_au/Products/Labels/Removable-Labels/White-Removable-Labels-L7167REV-25-Pack-199.6-x-289.1-mm_959150.htm

 

Not likely to be available off-the-shelf, but my local office supply specialist was happy enough to order it in for me.  Not cheap, at least for paper.  I think it worked out $1 or $2 a sheet.  However the pack only holds 25, and with a little forward thinking about page layout I've been able to send the same sheet through the printer several times, just peeling & snipping off what's needed.

 

Anyhow, back to the main event please!  Following along ...

 

 

 

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