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HMAS/m AE2, Scratchbuild


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On 4/14/2018 at 8:54 AM, Bandsaw Steve said:

If you go back far enough through this thread you will see that I have actually planned ahead with this moment in mind - remember me buying these from the nice young haberdashery assistant?

 

And cutting a series of slots in the casemate so the stanchions would have somewhere to live?

 

And even checking that they would fit in place before sticking the hull together?

 

Yes

Yes

Yes

 

 

On 4/14/2018 at 8:54 AM, Bandsaw Steve said:

Well, now's the time that all of that preparation paid dividends.  Basically I just slipped each stanchion through it's little bung-hole until the point of the needle poked out on the underside of the model. Then I stuck some two-part epoxy on it...

 

well, I was waiting for the 'I must have put them in a safe place'  excuse and the return trip to meet the nice little haberdashery assistant again.

 

 

 

Sticky-uppy bits are looking good

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Hendie,

 

I’ve had an idea. 💡 How about each time you think of a ‘joke’ you PM it to me. I’ll read it and let you know what I think, and perhaps provide feedback on how it can be improved. Then, once we have sorted out the best material and polished it up a bit you can post it, with confidence, for viewing by the greater Britmodeller public.

 

I think this might be the best way forward in your case. 🤔

 

Always here to help mate! 👍

 

Bandsaw Steve

 

 

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Cliffhanger...

 

Following my 'do or die' declaration vis-à-vis getting this thing ready for WASMEx (which is only six days away now) I have been trying to squeeze some modelling time in between the million and one other things going on at the moment. The outcome's uncertain folks, it's going down to the line! I think I can make it - but any delay or any major 'rooster-up' and I won't!

 

Here's where we start tonight's episode - ready to prime. The submarine is even on that handy little kitchen turntable that I use for this job.

IMG_4857

 

Rattle can primer - for me it's always a rattle can for primer. So much easier than airbrushing; doesn't have to be cleaned afterwards. Once again - laziness - but in this case it's also about speed.

IMG_4860

 

About forty-five minutes later (three light coats) - Primer done!

IMG_4863

 

Looks OK!

IMG_4861

 

Now let it sit overnight and let the paint cure so I can finally push on with a bit of (unavoidable really) - airbrushing.

IMG_4866

 

I sprayed the length of the hull at the waterline with Vallejo white.

IMG_4868

 

Yielding this. Let it sit a couple of hours to give it a chance for the paint to harden - don't be tricked by the fact that it's touch dry in minutes.

IMG_4874

 

I then then cracked this open - Gundam masking tape.  It seems to me that many modellers look down their nose at Gundam, but I'll tell you a secret. I have a specialist Gundam shop not far from my place and there's a whole world of bang-up-to-date modelling gear that that makes some of the stuff we 'traditional' modellers use look very dated.  This Gundam tape is an example. O.7mm thick, sticky as anything and ever so slightly stretchy. Ideal!

IMG_4881

 

On it goes. To be honest I was dreading this because I thought any masking tape would struggle with the compound curves of the submarine, especially running on to and along the top of the saddle tanks), but this stuff went on like a breeze.

IMG_4877

 

I just stretched it out and set in the right place by eye. Having a few distinctive landmarks such as rivets and those little oval hatches made getting the tape laid out in the right spot and correctly symmetrical surprisingly easy.  Here I am burnishing the tape down with some cotton buds.

IMG_4882

 

See - nice and straight.

IMG_4887

 

Now here's something I read about years ago but have never actually done before.  Since I'm trying to mask off a white stripe,  make at least the first 'post masking' coat white also. The idea is that any paint that bleeds under the tape is likely to be from the first coat, so if there's any bleed-under it will be white-on-white and will not be visible.

IMG_4892

 

Leaving this.

IMG_4893

 

I'm guessing that another advantage is that the top layer of paint will help hold the tape exactly, firmly in place. In the past I've found that tape can stretch and wander slightly over time.

I don't think that this can happen here.

 

I'm definitely running short of time now but have two full days off this week, including ANZAC day, and don't have much on in the evenings. So with a bit of luck and a tail wind I should still be able to get this finished in time. But it's definitely a cliffhanger.

 

Best Regards,

Steve

 

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I love that Aizu tape.  I bought a selection of all the different widths. Great stuff - which reminds me I must be due to buy some more.

 

good luck with getting the he build finished in time.

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It's nice to know the tape colour trick works. I posted something like that idea five years ago, at the Unofficial Airfix Forum, but still haven't got around to trying it yet.

 

http://uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=98&t=6869&p=275532#p275532

 

Just scroll a bit to see it

Edited by David J Ross
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Getting it on...to get it off...

 

Before I can follow Courageous' exhortations to 'get it off' a whole bunch of masking and paint has go on...

 

As I mentioned much earlier in this thread the colour of the primer is almost exactly what I had in mind for the above waterline colour so, for simplicities sake, I've decided to just go with that. Now that the white trim stripe is masked off I've just hit the entire boat with, yet another, coat of Mr Hobby grey primer.

 

Looks OK I reckon, but there's a fair bit more masking and painting to go.

IMG_4899

 

Now the white stripe that I am painting is not visible in this photo. It looks like it is but what you are seeing is white 'high-flex' Tamiya masking tape.  This tape is used to mask off the upper contact between the Aizu tape (that's only 0.7mm thick) and the light grey paint above. This is so that there is  protection for both the Aizu and the contact between the white painted stripe and the bottom few mm of light grey.  I'm assuming that there's already a nice clean contact between the white boot stripe and the light grey (I won't know for sure until later but I'm assuming it's good) - so I'm trying to protect that contact from the airbrushing about to follow.

IMG_4900

 

I also used some Vallejo masking fluid for the tricky bits.

IMG_4903

 

And then swopped to this - another Tamiya product (I'm not sure what it's called) but it's essentially a strip of masking tape with a big wide selvedge of clear plastic attached to one side. This is very good for masking large areas.

IMG_4904

 

Here's how I've used it. All of the areas to be left light grey are now under the protection of the clear plastic selvedge.

IMG_4905

 

So now I can spray some Vallejo 'dark grey' acrylic.  Yeah - sorry, that's this shade's name 'dark grey'. I was hoping for a more exciting name like 'panzer grey' or 'sputnik grey' or something - but no such luck. In this case it's 'dark grey'. :unamused: Ho Hum.

IMG_4907

 

And here it is being sprayed.

IMG_4910

 

And here it is with the large scale masking removed. Remember that the white stripe you can see isn't actually 'the'  white stripe in question.

IMG_4917

 

With the white tape removed we have a nice clean contact between 'dark grey' and 'primer grey' - but we still haven't actually 'got it off' yet, at least not in the way that Courageous would demand.

IMG_4918

 

There's still a thin band of Aizu tape in this photo - but it's basically impossible to see.

IMG_4920

 

Ahhhh... There it goes... 'Get it off'... 'Get it off'...:penguin:

IMG_4926

 

...Take it all off... I love this job, when it goes well it's one of the best bits in the whole hobby!

IMG_4928

 

Whew - there she goes.  The masking worked. Dark grey lower hull, thin white trim line and light grey upper hull, casemate and conning tower. Sweet!

IMG_4930

 

As for the masking job - something must have gone right because I reckon that white stripe is pretty tidy. it's certainly better than most of my masking efforts so I think that the idea of 'over-spraying' the protected colour (in this case white) seems to work quite well.  

IMG_4932

 

Am pressing on now. More to do.

 

Keep watching - the thread is no-longer 100% up to date as a lot more has been going on today than just painting. From here on the updates might start coming thick and fast.

 

Will post again soon,

Bandsaw Steve

 

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Markings and other bollards

 

Do you remember Letraset?

 

It was quite popular when I was a kid. You used to be able to buy little history books, each one was about some distinct event or historical period and in the middle page there was a painted scene onto which you could apply a set of (provided) Letraset decals to complete the historical picture. I well remember sitting in my cousin's lounge room completing a 'dambusters' scene with him once. There were Lancaster bombers and nightfighters and flak guns and bouncing bombs all over the place. Great fun!

 

Sadly Letraset is a bit of rarity nowadays - but not at Van Roon's place.  He's a draftsman by trade and has amassed a good collection of Letraset over the years, some of which he has very kindly lent to me - thanks mate!

 

Here's the sheet in question. The font is probably not 'dead right' for WW1 Submarines but it's actually pretty damned close and the price is right - so let's go... 

IMG_4945

 

First, test it to make sure that Letraset works OK on wood. Yep - all good.

IMG_4947

 

And now do it 'for real'.

 

In case you aren't familiar with this form of transfer, here's how they work. You rest the transfer where you want it to go, hold it still and 'scribble' all over the plastic backing with either a pen or some other blunt instrument - here I'm using the tip of a knitting needle. Once the entire pattern has been scribbled over, the markings become firmly stuck onto the receiving surface.  Exactly how the stuff works from a technical point of view I have no idea, but it does work very well.  Unlike waterslide decals, there's no film around the outside of the design. On the other hand there's no 'wriggle time' so you have to get the thing in the right spot first hit.

IMG_4949

 

This is what the first marking looks like.

IMG_4952

 

And here's the job complete. I'm happy with this.

IMG_4959

 

I wasn't so happy however when I realised that there were some mooring bollards (I think that's correct terminology) at the stern that I'd forgot to make.  This was easily rectified with some evergreen plastic tubing and some bad language. 

IMG_4963

 

One of the advantages with using a rattle-can for colours is that if you have to re-apply paint, such as the bollards in this case, the colour match is likely to be 'bang-on'.

IMG_4964

 

It's ANZAC day today and the big push is on,  so expect some more posts soon.

 

Steve

 

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