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Airfix 1/72 therapy build thread: Wildcat done!


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12 hours ago, CedB said:

Stop it! I already have at least three nippers and the latest Xuron's are doing well :) 

Less yakking more spending. Xurons will probably break tomorrow, be prepared man, in fact buy the Meng version as well just in case,.

 

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Another minor modelling hurdle overcome: Making decals conform to near impossible protrusions etc:

 

The challenge:

 

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The results:

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Its an easy technique, : Let the decal set for 15 minutes. Boil some water and then cut up 5 cm paper towel squares and fold them into a 1-2 cm strips. Dip the strips in the boiling water ( wearing rubber gloves!) and gently press on the decal. It will  soften and mould its self to anything virtually, like the bonkers stuff above. Be careful as you might get beyond the point where the decal will start tearing, so a few goes rather than one hit. Its controllable as you can do it in stage and it works with any decal (silkscreened or not)  without having to resort to chemical voodoo.

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Well my little 190D is all done and dusted

 

 

So  I gave the Scooter a little love: Messed up the tail pipe and needed to retouch large areas at the back but easy to do with the  Sotar 20/20 and its ability to lay down 1 mm dots of colour. Canopy unmasked and WD40'd to remove glue and restore that "Future Shine! ™" A bit of final assembly and we should should see finish number three for January!

 

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On 1/28/2019 at 9:39 PM, 06/24 said:

WD40?

 

Scooter looks cute. Can a warplane look cute?

Yup planes can look well cute, I think the F-5b/T-38 is a lil honey to look at and so is the L-39.

 

WD40 is another of those little modelling secrets, first heard about it here when trying bare metal foil canopy masking (?!!!!!).  God I hated this technique but found the WD40 very handy indeed subject to testing everything as recommended

 

http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/maskingbmfds_1.htm

 

Suggested it to another BMer to remove a horrible paint mishap

 

I use it mainly to get rid of the glue from canopy masks and make the canopy pop again, try it you'll be pleasantly surprised ( but be careful, it can melt paints as shown!). Just put a small amount on one end of a cotton bud, rub just the canopy ( these asda cotton buds work a treat if you haven't got the super pointy Tamiya/Mr Hobby ones: One end is pointy and the other flat) then polish with the dry end of the bud, you might need to repeat a few times for real gunk and it also seems to remove any paint that sneaked under the masks quite well,

 

Hey whaddaya know? A for once cheap Anil tip that uses £0.75 cotton buds and that can of WD40 everyone has in the cupboard under the sink:rofl:

 

Cheers

 

Anil

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PS, agree about the F5, built the Airfix F-5E in the aggressor scheme as a kid and it was one of my favourite childhood builds. Duked it out over the duvet desert many a time with my Wolfpack F-14A...

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Oy! Finish number 3 for January 2019! Got to to keep up, the Mighty Gwinn aka @06/24 has the build fever upon him and I will not be a laggard, wot with him having a bigger sporran* and all...

 

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Do Scooters have blue windshields ? This one do cos I liked the look of them on Spooks  and while I was there, replaced hokey Airfix antenna on the anti glare panel with something more in scale:

 

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Just for @06/24 Cute old style A-4 nav  and fuselage lights (apologies for the out of focus, am too mean to swing for newer iPhone with better macro, they'll be pin sharp in the RFI)

 

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Hollowed out cannons,

 

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Airfix air brake jacks were oversized and made the brakes nearly perpendicular to the fuselage, so Albion slide fit tubes substituted, left them unpainted because I think it looks cool ( never mind load of rivets to count in the air brake bay if you must). Brake edges were done with a few swipes of a red Sharpie

 

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Bombs, Ma! Anil's not given' peas a chance..also got bored of nudging around teeny bits of black decal for the arrestor hook so stopped after four.

 

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So everything is drying, some final touch ups tomorrow and, stand needs building and into the photo studio for the RFI Thursday.

 

Looks like a honey, but some seriously badly thought out engineering, Nice touches like the pretty accurate seat- early scooters had no straps just receiver buckles for the harness which was built into the pilots suit. Overall everything more or less fit but I'll be intrigued to compare it to the Hobbyboss 1/72 A-4 family allegedly coming out this year. The Xtradecals were superb but the fuselage panels were over sized and should have been one piece to avoid the seam. I should have done a better job on the intakes and painted them as they are completely solid red at the front but this is mostly OOB and as its going to a barrister, he can sue me if he wants.

 

Three done in one month, building is fun, hoarding isn't!, This therapy is definitely working for me if not for anyone else.

 

Well time to clean down workstation 2, bag the spare parts ( saving the undercarriage for you know who...) and prep the next build, I'm going pre-war baby, with some conversion afoot

 

Thanks for taking the ride

 

Anil

 

* This is a lie: in truth I have nae sporran at all, not even a wee  one...my shame is total.

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On ‎1‎/‎26‎/‎2019 at 2:18 PM, azureglo said:
On ‎1‎/‎26‎/‎2019 at 1:23 AM, CedB said:

Stop it! I already have at least three nippers and the latest Xuron's are doing well :) 

Less yakking more spending. Xurons will probably break tomorrow, be prepared man, in fact buy the Meng version as well just in case,.

 

Here here. And while you're at it said get a few more models for the stash... heh heh :winkgrin:

 

Looking spiffing Anil. Fantastically neat finish. Got those transfers down well, even if you had to call on the support of a hot geyser. Another silhouette cutter question though. Did you not think of making masks? Admittedly not always practical I suppose, especially in this instance.

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1 hour ago, Tomoshenko said:

Here here. And while you're at it said get a few more models for the stash... heh heh :winkgrin:

 

Looking spiffing Anil. Fantastically neat finish. Got those transfers down well, even if you had to call on the support of a hot geyser. Another silhouette cutter question though. Did you not think of making masks? Admittedly not always practical I suppose, especially in this instance.

Hey Tom

 

Did try, but those vortex generators on the top wing tore the Tamiya tape (kabuki) and the Oracal 810 just formed into teepee shapes: There are somethings masks just cant do and this is one of them-the kabuki would have worked over the probe but bleed is always a problem when you're going over a ridge thats nearly 2 mm. I'm experimenting on my next AF build with 3m blue lining tape, that can conform to amazing shapes and  is the basis of Tamiya's Curve tape tech: Problem is the near super glue strength of the adhesive they use, fine for the likes of Chip Foose and his baking ovens for hardening  paint, not so good for 1/72 airbrushed camo over primer

 

BTW the Lanc despite my irreverent remarks, is utterly stunning, you're actually doing a masterclass in believable weathering not some over exaggerated  Spanish school relic from the time before dinosaurs with rust to boot!

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Can't hang around so can we get pre-war for second? Had these lovely decals lying around for ages so lets see if I can backdate this F4-4 to a F4-3 (early):

 

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Now looking at the top red bird with spinner, that looks cute ("cute" is currently the "in thing"  as far this thread is concerned), from what I can see it needs non folding wings, deletion of outer gun bays, addition of longer gun barrels, possible cowl guns, removal of a cowl intake and a funky pointy spinner. There are probably endless other details including a  reshaped grundling spangulator and enlarged flux capacitor, but that stuff bores me rigid and stops any model building in my experience  and replaces it endless posting in talk forums. Anil is here to build not yak ( well I do yak but I like to build more…).

 

Melted some of the kits sprue in fresh  Humbrol poly as a filler: There's a lot of re-scribing and sanding to get rid of the wing folds and I really don't enjoy scribing through putty or CA

 

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Primed and zinc chromated the interior parts, cockpit assembly and might see a zipped up fuselage tomorrow. Now off to check the paint store, I'm pretty sure I bought some Mr Color Super Silver, that would do a treat for the silver painted fuselage...

 

Nighty night peeps

 

Anil

 

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I find the melted sprue solution (gloop) - although it always strikes me what the grey goo resulting from nanobots run amok dystopia would look like - is best for filling areas where re-scribing will take place.

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4 hours ago, azureglo said:

 

Melted some of the kits sprue in fresh  Humbrol poly as a filler:

 

21 minutes ago, Tomoshenko said:

melted sprue solution (gloop)

Having never made this stuff but have the ingredients, how much plastic to how much cement? :shrug:

 

4 hours ago, azureglo said:

Anil is here to build not yak ( well I do yak but I like to build more…).

I like your attitude. :yes:

 

Stuart

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2 hours ago, Courageous said:

Having never made this stuff but have the ingredients, how much plastic to how much cement? :shrug:

 

About this much |________| to this much |____________|.

 

:D

 

In other words, add bits of sprue as required to make a consistency that works for you. I find that whittling bits of sprue off with a sharp knife to get thin shavings helps the dissolving to happen quicker.

 

The downside to goop is that it can take forever to cure, so not a filler to use on that last-minute-before-going-to-the-show repair.

 

Has anyone tried using Tamiya Extra Thin Quick Setting for this?

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Mine's with Liquid poly and I was told to add more sprue than you think; not enough sprue and you get a shiny finish that's harder to sand and dries more slowly; too much and you can add more glue. Adjust slowly, like overnight. HTH :) 

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