Working with resin upgrades, aircraft building

[Stalker6Recon 510]

Hey my modelling guru's, I need some info on using resin upgrades, and I have not been able to find much via YT. Partly because I am in a new house and haven't been able to get my internet hooked up yet, so I have to buy load on my crappy phone, and its REALLY SLOW, plus, most of the videos are based on full resin kits in Gundam or something, not really the kind of upgrade kits we face.

 

Anyway, I am pretty sure I got the cleaning resin part, using respirators when sanding/cutting (what ever happened to the old highschool shop class, where lost fingers were a thing of pride, we are too safety conscious these days!)

 

Anyway, I have some resin conversions from CMK in 1/48. Wow, these bits are small, looks like antenna and or pitot tubes stuck to the big resin base. Any tricks to removing them without destroying the actual parts? They look very delicate, and there is ten tikes the amount of wasted resin, as the actual parts, is that normal.

 

Then a have some resin nozzles in 48 (why is that called quarter scale? I thought 1/4 =quarter scale) anyway, I am not sure how to best remove those nozzles without damaging the nozzles themselves?

 

Any links to videos would be great for later, just some pictures and explaining will do just fine too.

 

Thanks in advance, as always,

 

Anthony stalker6recon D'Agostino

[Giorgio N 6,868]

The best tool to remove resin parts from their casting block is a small saw. Using a cutter can work but with a saw there's less risk of breaking the part. Where a cutter is useful is with very small parts, in this case a saw may be difficult to use.

Generally parts like nozzles have a certain lenght of resin between the part itself and the casting block, in this case the best solution is to cut at the casting block and then remove the extra length by sanding carefully. With some parts it's easier that with others of course and a lot depends on how the part is attached to the block

[MarkH206 592]

Try a set of photo-etch saws. These are very delicate and work really well with small resin bits.

[Stalker6Recon 510]

7 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

 cut at the casting block and then remove the extra length by sanding carefully.

That is a very logical method, not sure why I did not think of that. Cut it with some room for error, and in the case of the nozzles, sanding on a hard flat surface will be a LOT safer, thanks for that tip, I have been petrified of even messing with them.

 

Are they as fragile as I think? They are so light, which is why I am nervous, but maybe that is deceptive and they are a lot more resilient than I think.

 

Anyway, now that  you explained that, I think I might put them on the table and play around with them a bit. I have a Tamiya saw set, which I can use to make the initial cut from the mould. I probably should wait until I get the bigger flat saw, but that could take months to arrive, but I am curious, and want to start playing with my gear asap.

 

Thanks a million!

 

Anthony

[Giorgio N 6,868]

Resin parts can be surpsisingly strong, the main problem is that resin is more brittle than plastic. Of course areas with lot of detail (like the rods inside the nozzle petals) would be more prone to damage if handled heavily but overall resin nozzles are not that fragile.

[Stalker6Recon 510]

1 hour ago, Giorgio N said:

overall resin nozzles are not that fragile. 

Got ya, great to hear it, they have me a bit intimidated, but now I feel much more confident. Since it is three AM here, I will have to wait til tomorrow to see if I can remove the parts from their base. I will update with pics, if all goes well, or horribly!

 

Thanks again,

 

Talk to you later, Anthony

[dogsbody 4,506]

5 hours ago, MarkH206 said:

Try a set of photo-etch saws. These are very delicate and work really well with small resin bits.

 

Like this:

 

 

It's a CMK blade in a large Xacto handle.

 

I also have the bit of a broken CMK blade in a pin vise:

 

 

 

Chris

 

[Stalker6Recon 510]

10 hours ago, dogsbody said:

It's a CMK blade in a large Xacto handle.

I had not seen one like this, thank you, that puts me on the right path.

 

Thanks, Anthony

[Silenoz 982]

That last one is also nice for scribing... Makes better lines then most panel scribers...

[Stalker6Recon 510]

21 minutes ago, Silenoz said:

That last one is also nice for scribing.

The broken CMK resin saw?

 

Confused....... A state I often find myself in!

 

Anthony

[Silenoz 982]

Yes, the broken one, when restoring lines like the ones from one hull half to another (after sanding the seam away...), such a saw or broken saw works best

[MarkH206 592]

Tamiya do a set of p.e. saws. I think other companies do as well. This is what I mean:

 

 

I have taken one saw off the fret and folded to make the little saw shown beside the Swann Morton knife. I am currently using that saw to remove resin parts for my Halifax build. The saw is tiny but so are the teeth and it cuts surprisingly quickly and you can get very neat cuts.

Mark

[Stalker6Recon 510]

21 hours ago, MarkH206 said:

Try a set of photo-etch saws

I actually have a set from Tamiya, but realized that the teeth are always on flat sides of the saw shape, if that makes sense. So all the saws with their different shapes, each has a flat edge and that is the only part of the blade with teeth. Kind of confused me about why all the different shapes if they end up with a straight edge anyway. But I need to learn so much more, and then it might make sense. One this I did not like about the set, even though they are PE saws, the blade kerf seems too thick. Probably ok on 35th and larger scale kits, but for 48 and 72, it won't look right.

 

I just ordered a set by hasegawa, their blades have teeth on inside curves (think sickle) and outside curves. They also have a lot of ratings, if I remember correctly, more than 700 and maintaining near perfect 5 stars. That was an easy decision, bonus free shipping. Since I live in the Philippines, free shipping rules!

4 hours ago, MarkH206 said:

Tamiya do a set of p.e. saws.

I have one of their saw sets, read above for my initial thoughts, but I have to learn how ro use them as well. The Tamiya saw I tried while removing the doors off the AH-6, was too thick for the job, so I stopped before I cut straight thru the canopy frame. That was sketchy. The hasegawa set I just bought should be here in about a month, cross my fingers!

 

 

Ok guys, I am going to try and remove the nozzles from their base using the Tamiya PE saw, I will report back the results with pics, if I figure out how to upload them.

 

Thanks so much, my confidence is rising! (SCARY!)

[Stalker6Recon 510]

So this is what I am working with. An x-acto(ish) knife handle, saw kit made from PE and nozzles for my F-18F Super Hornet!

 

I have not figured out how to insert pictures, guess I need to start my own photo album online somewhere......

 

Will you look at that, I got it to work!

[Silenoz 982]

Nice, there are a ton of sites to upload the pictures, personally I use scalemates (www.scalemates.com), because it is also a very handy stashmanager, and you can link your stash to projects...

[Stalker6Recon 510]

16 minutes ago, Silenoz said:

Nice, there are a ton of sites to upload the pictures, personally I use scalemates (www.scalemates.com), because it is also a very handy stashmanager, and you can link your stash to projects...

I also use scalemates, that is a GREAT site for info on kits and the matching aftermarket swag you can add. Love that site! My handle is stalker6recon, you can add me there if you like...

 

I just opened and account with canon, they allow 15GB free, so here is a picture of the first resin cut made. The one on the left is the finished cut, the one on the right has not been touched, so you can see a before/after view. It was much easier than I expected! Confindence rising! (sounds like a B movie title)

 

[Stalker6Recon 510]

Last picture update before going off to bed. I want to keep going, but the devil on my should won't let, or is she the better half? I forget. Anyway, this is the feathers before/after side by side. I will try the flat sanding technique to remove the last bits of the casting, which I was unwilling to remove via the saw. The saw works great for this application, the kerf is perfect, not too thick, not so thin it buckles under pressure. I used slight pressure to score around the nozzle, on about the fifth pass, it began to separate, so I slowed down. Think I am getting the hang of this, but won't get cocky.

 

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast! Forget where I picked that up, but it has been relevant for everything from racing, changing magazines in my M4 and other training back in the Army days, now its become somewhat of a motto for me!

 

[dogsbody 4,506]

And there you go! Look at what you've learned since yesterday. You've done well, young padawan.

 

 

Chris

[Stalker6Recon 510]

46 minutes ago, dogsbody said:

And there you go! Look at what you've learned since yesterday.

Even though it is a tiny step, I have to admit, it felt good to conquer that hesitation and just get it done.

 

Thanks for the tips, I have a feeling that my build will go a whole lot better by getting tips from you guys, its awesome. I can't imagine going it alone, like the days before the internet. Back then, there was no thread to explain things, its very cool!

 

Anthony

[dogsbody 4,506]

22 hours ago, Stalker6Recon said:

Even though it is a tiny step, I have to admit, it felt good to conquer that hesitation and just get it done.

 

Thanks for the tips, I have a feeling that my build will go a whole lot better by getting tips from you guys, its awesome. I can't imagine going it alone, like the days before the internet. Back then, there was no thread to explain things, its very cool!

 

Anthony

 

That's one of, if not the best thing about this forum. The vast store of knowledge that is willingly shared here.

 

Remember to post pictures of your build.

 

 

 

Chris