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1/48 Revell AH-64D Apache Longbow


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https://photos.app.goo.gl/FpjGhCd37mHu9s5X6

 

Started this one about 6 months ago ... as a kit it proved pretty frustrating due to fit of the parts so progress was slow.

 

Its only the fourth kit I've done with an airbrush so the finish isn't that great. Thinning Revell Aqua Colour to get good results seems to be a black art.

 

Initially covered in white Vallejo primer and pre-shaded with Tamiya XF1 black. A slightly enthusiastic covering with the Revell Nato Olive green pretty much obliterated that!

 

Lesson learned  ... check , double check and check again you've got rid of all plastic flashing / ridges and filled/sanded all seams prior to painting ! The tiniest imperfection will show ....

Not really news to most people on here but this kit rammed it home to me.

 

I did try a modest effort at post-shading on some of the fuselage but the results were not great and most were covered over -you can still see bits if you look carefully.

 

Covered everything in a gloss coat for decals and thats when everything went really bad .... somewhere along the line something reacted with the canopy plastic and caused it to go somewhat hazy and in places look like it had been roughly sanded. Along with that 99% of the decals silvered around the edges - despite using Microset and sol.

 

I'd be interested to hear what others are using for gloss coats/ canopy protection as the fabled "Klear" seems to rarer than hen's teeth.

 

It was too late to turn back now so I pressed on with a panel wash using Mig Ammo black PLW ... by way of experiment I liberally coated the model with it in an effort to get a"dirty" used look rather than the clinical, clean lines I prefer and then cleaned off. In the end it turned out to be neither - a rather non-pleasing dodgy half way house.

 

tio finish it was given two coats of Vallejo acrylic matt varnish.

 

Thanks for reading ... any advice/pointers greatly received.

 

 

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Looks good in spite of your troubles with it!

 

Klear has probably had its day as a modelling varnish. I use lacquers but friends currently are very happy with Alclad Aqua Gloss as a gloss coat. Can't tell from your post if you gloss-coated over your clear parts or if they were masked, but I would definitely recommend that you keep them masked until all the surface treatments are completed.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about the decals silvering, I build a lot of Revell kits and it's quite a common occurrence 🙄

 

Alan

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20 minutes ago, ianh said:

You'll need to explain that one ...I'm clearly a bit slow ....

I was looking for pictures, then I saw the link at the top 👍

 

As already mentioned, looks better than you described 👏

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