oileanach Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 My best mate loves collectables- if you sell AFVs or ship models in the UK, you've probably done business with him. This makes Christmas and birthdays easy going, since I get to send a model of whatever the flavour of the month is. He hates building, never mind painting, so I even get to make the kit. Bargain! This year I sourced a BSG Viper, then wasted a week trying (failing) to paint on wee Hara Thrace's glowing helmet. No biggie, plenty of time left... Or not. Spoiler- warning, contains tale of woe and much whining! Spoiler Try as I might, I just couldn't get a flat base coat down. Paint mix was fine, pressure was good, but I was getting splatter everywhere. Stripping and deep cleaning the brush didn't help, zapping it in the ultrasonic cleaner achieved nothing- if anything, the splatter was getting worse. I went over the needles, seals, even the airway, but everything looked fine. It was only when cleaning the paint nozzles for what felt like the twentieth time that I noticed what I should have checked first. They all had hairline cracks! I'm not sure when the damage was done. I use my 0.4 for varnish and metallics, it may have been that way for a while- varnish and metallic paints are always a nightmare, I might not have noticed the issue. I hardly use the 0.15 any more- it's great for inks, but you have to use airbrush specific paints or heavily thinned regular colours, maybe it went off and I just thought it was the tiny needle giving me gyp. But the 0.2 is the one I've been using every week, without a hint of trouble, for years.... ...er, yeah, that's probably got a lot to do with it, now I think about it! The brush I use is a H&S Infinity. The nozzels are made of silver alloy. They've behaved flawlessly for the last five years, I can't honestly complain about them wearing out, especially given how good the rest of the brush is holding up. But the timing could have been better! By the time the replacement nozzles arrived we were already into the festive season and dad's taxi service was required pretty much constantly. My plans to black base and marble the paint on, using thin mists combining modulation and zenithal lighting on the top side, with perhaps a wee bit of osl on the underside went straight in the bin. A light pre-shade, some gentle weathering and a gazillion decals were the order of the day. The H&S was back to being an absolute delight to use, but even so, I just ran out of time. So no crimbo pressie for my wing man... ...until now! It's getting boxed tonight, posted tomorrow. Hope he enjoys it as much as I did putting it together. The fit isn't great, the instructions could be better and there are better ways to put stripes on a 'plane, but it's still a great wee kit. I just wish I'd had enough time to do it justice. The finished item: 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 Well done Viper ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RACETRACK Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 very, very nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey-1980 Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 Very nice Viper! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 Nice - you can't beat a good Viper, and those Moebius kits are a great jumping off point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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