Studio Scale (1:24) Angel Interceptor from Captain Scarlet

[Kallisti]

With the prospect of an Easter weekend of good weather coming along, I thought it was time to dig out a kit I've had int he stash for 18 months since it was released at SMW in 2017 by Kits for Cash. Its a very large amount of resin that will need a significant amount of sanding so there was no way I was going to do that in the house or even in the shed! I've set up a work table in the garden ready to begin work tomorrow.

 

Here are the original "sprue shots from 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes it has an obviously female pilot, unlike the Airfix kit!

 

 

 

This is from the original batch of castings Simian Stuff did. Since they they've had it recast and this part is now split into 3, fuselage and separate wings.

 

So now we come up to the present day and this evening I got it all out of the box that has been languishing on the shelf for 18 months and gave it all a good wash in warm soapy water. Here it is drying just now 

 

 

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I'll be out in the garden and start sanding down some of those quite prominent seams and flash...

[Kallisti]

... and so it begins... everything needed out in the garden with the sun shining

 

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Modelling al fresco, how tres Continental, Mange tout, Rodney.

[Kallisti]

Well that was a fun afternoon  A lot of sanding with a bit more sanding on top, and finally just a lot more sanding!

 

The most difficult part was the cockpit canopy - it had a huge chunk of flash around one end which had to be cut and then all the edges sanded down carefully so that it fits over the cockpit without gaps. I've got it 97% there before the evening drew in and the insects started buzzing around. Plus I had the last episode of Star Trek: Discovery to watch!

 

There were a LOT of pinholes in the upper tail plane surface. I've given it a coat of Halfords Filler Primer and will sand that back tomorrow. The worst of the mould lines sanded down reasonably on most of the pieces but the wings were pretty horrendous, with a heavy seam line down the leading and trailing edges. The dremel got a good work out until it concked out - possibly because I maanged to spill some water on it while using the wet n dry sanding sheets!

 

The pilot had a considerable amount of excess resin in some very delicate places - ahem, which needed carving out and sanding.

 

More tomorrow, where I might remember to take some progress photos, in the meantime, the tulips etc have flowered and look lovely - if you look carefully you might notice a Meccano girder supporting one of them which has some trouble staying upright - been out on the pi... town again!!!

 

 

[morty_3333]

Hi Kallisti!

 

Great to see You make a start on Your Angel, it will be interesting to see the differences between Your release of the kit and the one I'm doing, I noticed that You have wing fences in Your kit, none in mine!

 

I must post an update on mine in the week, working this weekend####### (Of course I am, have You seen the weather............)

 

Keep sticking!!I

 

cheers,  Pete

[Kallisti]

Sadly the wing fences don't fit the wing profile so will need some major work done to one or the other to get them to fit!

 

I've started work again now and took some photos of where things got to by end yesterday. I'll post more later...

[Kallisti]

As promised, here are some catch up photos to show yesterday's progress, first off the tailplane I mentioned with the pinhole problem 

 

 

Tricky to see here but in close up its more obvious

 

 

I came up with a solution for this problem later... Next is the tail vents, this is okay not major prolbems

 

 

Now for the front canard, same again no major problems

 

 

The main body of the tail is next - there were issues with the casting block at the bottom but some serious sanding sorted that out

 

 

The nose cone next

 

 

The cockpit canopy has had the main block of clear resin cleared off but still requires a lot of cleaning up as it won't fit properly over the cockpit.

 

 

Turning it over you can see some more bubbles in the resin. This will eventually be hidden behind silver paint for the canopy frame

 

 

The cockpit itself is part of a large block of resin that includes the intakes. This had some very prominent seams down the side which you can see have been sanded off here

 

 

 

The instrument panel in the cockpit is my favourite piece of the whole kit, its gorgeous!

 

 

Front skid

 

 

Turning over you can see where the casting block was sanded off

 

 

There there are the wing fences. These are not included in the newer versions of this kit but even for this one they don't fit on the wings well - will need to do some surgery to get them to fit!

 

 

The wing skids

 

 

 

with these, I discovered this afternoon that if you leave them out in a hot sun they weep resin solvent! Next is the pilot figure

 

 

If you compare this with the earlier pictures you'll see the rather delicate surgery I had to perform to remove her from the casting block - rather undignified for a lady! The figure is cast as having long hair so that narrows who this could be down to 3 of the 5 Angels: Destiny (blonde, French), Symphony (dark blonde, American) or Rhapsody (redhead, English). I think it will have to be Rhapsody flying this one! Next are some of the smaller components that haven't yet been removed from their casting blocks

 

 

The seat, cast in red resin. It has already had some of the seatbelts dremelled off but will require more work to get Rhapsody to sit comfortably in it.

 

 

So that was how far I'd got yesterday, on to work on things today and first to look at is the large fuselage and wing piece

 

 

This has several issues with this casting, not least are the large casting seams, holes and voids along the wing leading and trailing edges! I've enlarged this photo so you can see what I mean along the leading edge - you can slso see a line of bubbles along the top of the fuselage

 

 

Here you can just about make out the large seam line along the leading edge of the wing

 

 

Major problems with the casting here at the rear of the fuselage with a void and damaged surface 

 

 

However, the other side sanded down fine

 

 

The rear of the fuselage was a mess with the underside of the casting sticking out about 5mm - thank god for dremmel!

 

 

The thick seam along the top of the fuselage cleaned up okay

 

 

The cockpit with the instrument panel dry fitted, lovely, my favourite part of the whole kit!

 

 

Here is that troublesome tailplane having had the Halford Filler primer sanded off 0 you can see all the pinholes as yellow spots

 

 

Sadly they didn't remain filled with yellow primer dust  Rhapsody has hands and feet!!!

 

 

The canopy was sanded, tested, sanded tested ad nauseam this afternoon but eventually the bugger fitted!

 

 

The last jobs of the day were to give the pieces so far unprimered some primer coat

 

 

This really shows up the holes

 

 

and yet more

 

 

The rear port side fuselage look much better but will need some more filling

 

 

Small pieces getting primed

 

 

Previosuly primed pieces sanded back showing the pots where the filler has remained

 

 

Now back to the pinholes of the tailplane, my potential solution, a diluted Mr Dissoved Putty/ Mr Surfacer 500 mix, stippled across the surface, then followed up with a fine wire loaded with the mix whenever a pinhole showed up on the surface, hence the rather spotty appearance. The problem was the filler was too thick to penetrate into the hole and displace the air in there without the encouragement of the fine wire to force the air out and allow the filler in!

 

 

Finally, last job of the day was to get some P38 filler onto the wing to fill those gaping holes!

 

 

Rhapsody has also been primed with white primer, ready to be properly painted up. More on that tomorrow!

[Pete in Lincs]

I'm glad it's you doing this one and not me!

Mind you I would like to own the end result. I'll PM my address so you can post it on.

I may well need to copy the fine wire idea at some future point, so thanks for that.

I have my VW Transporter to rub down this morning. Easy compared to what you've been doing.

Pete

[Grey Beema]

Lots of fine filling and sanding there - good job...

 

Its a shame to see that the Interceptors cockpit remained analogue rather than glass but I guess that just shows that some things couldn't be imagined back in the 60s...

[Kallisti]

Phew today has been a very messy day! Had to change clothes and have a shower halfway through the day as the wet and dry sanding meant I had yellow paint stains all over my shirt and jeans!  So this morning I spent an hour sanding the main fuselage to get this far

 

 

The rear is better but not perfect yet

 

 

However there are still bloody holes in the leading edge...

 

 

 

 

Does it never end??????

 

 

Anyway, this morning on examining the tailplane, I had to go over a couple more pinholes that had been missed, but that wasn't a problem and it got set aside for a few hours.

 

 

Later this afternoon I was then able to start sanding this and it came out pretty good I reckon

 

 

 

So much so that I thought it would be worth trying the white primer on it

 

 

Well that looks okay... wait hang on whats this?

 

 

OH COME ON!!!!!

 

On a more positive note, I took some Squadron white stuff putty to the holes in the wing leading edge and after a couple of hours I was able to sand it back and was very pleased with the results!

 

 

 

 

That one needs just a little more attention I think, and this next one was the big holes I first noticed

 

 

So thats alright then! Next was a load more sanding on the cockpit section which went fine and has filled in some of the dinks and scratches

 

 

 

 

Various small pieces primed and sanded back and also looking okay

 

 

This final one for now shows how large it will be once built...

 

 

I've started painting Rhapsody and the seat and instrument panel, and I'm tempted to try gluing some things together before the day ends... gulp!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kallisti]

Well I did it, as I was clearing up this evening I mixed up some 5 minute epoxy and actually glued something!!!!

 

 

Its going to need some P38 in the morning once its cured as the joint isn't very smooth - it just means a LOT more sanding... sigh In the meantime this evening I started painting the pilot and seat:

 

 

I mixed some Vallejo vermillion with saddle brown to get Rhapsody's hair colour. I'll add some highlights later. There are a few touch ups required as well... hmm is that the appropriate phrase to use when talking about a lady...

 

 

Gold mirror shades, how very 60s  She's holding one handle of the control column in her left hand which still needs to be painted. I used Matt white on the uniform and gloss white on the boots, boots, kinky boots... er... where was I?

 

By the way, that bottle just behind Rhapsody is my Butanol which is a retarder for Tamiya paint - makes Tamiya paint brush paintable! Marvellous stuff!

 

The seat also got painted

 

 

 

Paint was still wet in that last one - the paint retarder works see

 

That all for today, but I will leave you with this timeless 'classic' to enjoy...

 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2019 by Kallisti

[HL-10]

Surprised that you haven't disappeared under a pile of sanding dust!😏

 

Your perseverance is paying off.

My Angel is a later casting, separate wings and intakes.

Not as many bubbles, but some interesting joins to overcome.

 

Great work..

Looking forward to watching this develop 😁

[Kallisti]

Sadly it appears I have managed to pick up a cold from somewhere. I thought the tickle in my throat the last couple of days was from dust/hayfever but this morning I've woken up feeling dreadful  I don't believe it!!!

[Kallisti]

Well it definitely feels cold-like, but I've dosed myself up and carrying on anyway. First thing this morning I slathered some P38 onto the joint - it should be fully cured by lunchtime to start sanding

 

 

In the meantime, did some work to fit the wing fences. I used Dymo label tape to give me a cutting guide for the razor saw

 

 

and along with some careful whittling with files, they seem to fit okay

 

 

Had to check pictures of the studio model to work out which way round they go, in the end it looks liek the large side goes underneath

 

 

and the small side on top

 

 

After a break and more cold remedy dosage, it was back to the sanding again and boy was it long, tiring and messy! On this one you can see a couple of spots that'll need follow-up filling as they appears during the sanding

 

 

The other side looks okay, but the intake under the 'pill' was a right faff to sand!

 

 

Underneath, you can see where the epoxy dripped and has become part of the joint filler

 

 

Now I need a break and some lunch!!!

[ElectricLightAndy]

 

Woweee, look at that progress, this thing is going to be beautiful 😍

 

Andy.

[Kallisti]

Final update from yesterday's work now. After the sanding back of the P38 I decided to give it a new coat of primer to see how its faring and this is what was revealed

 

 

Oh dear! 

 

 

 

Then on the underside I noticed a small crack which on investigation revealed a void covered by a thin layer of resin which flaked away to leave a hole...

 

 

 

So there is a bit more work required here, particularly around those ridges where the P38 meets the resin. So it was out with the sanding black again and sanding all the primer back ready for one more coat of P38, especially to fill that hole.

 

 

That is where it was left last night. I'm not sure when I'll be returning to this at the moment as I appear to have picked up cold over the Easter weekend and feeling decidedly ropey today  Need to get better as its Avengers: Endgame on Thursday and Milton Keynes show on Sunday...

 

[morty_3333]

Hi Kallisti!

 

Great progress on Your Angel, I've been fortunate as far as pinholes go, but still have some major sand,fill,repeat to do.

 

You've beat Me to Rhapsody, might have to get the hair dye out (I've only got grey.........), or, maybe She had a sister...............

 

Onward with the good work, hope You feel better soon!

 

Keep Sticking!

 

Cheers,  Pete

 

 

[S5 modeller]

Beautiful work kallisti, coming along a treat. Shame about all the pin holes, but they seem to be par the course with large resin pieces. Beware of the cold like symptoms you have, as I've had similar in the past sore tickly throat and blocked nose with sneezing fits, found out it was resin dust causing it. A day or so away from sanding resin cleared it up. Make sure to wear a mask, or wet sand and damp down to reduce the amount of dust created. 

 

Matt

[Gimme Shelter]

coming on well Andy - looking forward to seeing it completed

[Kallisti]

22 hours ago, S5 modeller said:

Beautiful work kallisti, coming along a treat. Shame about all the pin holes, but they seem to be par the course with large resin pieces. Beware of the cold like symptoms you have, as I've had similar in the past sore tickly throat and blocked nose with sneezing fits, found out it was resin dust causing it. A day or so away from sanding resin cleared it up. Make sure to wear a mask, or wet sand and damp down to reduce the amount of dust created. 

 

Matt

 

Yes I have been VERY careful about wearing the respirator when sanding the resin. The cold has gone (lasted 2 days) but sadly left me with a persistent cough which irritates my thrat which makes me cough... ad nauseam  I'm asthmatic so this always happens with cold, its par for the course.

 

There has been some more work done on this - the second round of P38 was sanded back which showed up some more small holes but these got filled with Squadron White putty and gently sanded back. It needs another blast of filler primer to check it out but the weather hasn't been good enough to do this outside.

[Kallisti]

As promised here are some of the photos from the latest round of sanding and priming:

 

 

 

 

 

So you can see lots of holes that needed filling. This was done using Squadron white putty and sanded down carefully. This afternoon I was able to give the result a new coat of primer and will upload the results a bit later...

[Kallisti]

Now that the primer has dried and cured I can see the results properly and things are looking good for most of the previous problems...

 

 

Funny thing was my cameras auto-focus was having issues with these pics - it just wouldn't focus properly! 

 

 

However, as you can see the gaping holes, voids and various irregularities have been smoothed out. We've lost some panel lines, but I'm not concerned about that, they can be restored later.  On the underside there are no more problems, so I'm very pleased with that!

 

 

The starboard wing leading edge is looking much better. There are a couple of small dimples but nothing too major

 

 

The port wing leading edge will need a bit more work but not a big deal.

 

 

The tail got a bit of a bash whenI accidentally dropped it while sanding. There has been a lot of filler added but still a few minor irregularities need sorting

 

 

The port wing trailing edge still has a lot of holes that were missed in previous inspections

 

 

The starboard wing trailing edge is in a much better state, just one small hole and a dimple to fix

 

 

I've saved the best for last however as the canopy frame has now been painted. After a recommendation from one of my club mates, I picked up a can of Halfords Aluminium today when I stocked up on some more primer. I masked up the canopy over a week ago and then gave it a coat of Tamiya Grey primer earlier this afternoon. Then later this afternoon I gave it a coat of the Aluminium and wow, I was blown away by the result when I took the masking off...

 

[Dan Griffin]

That aluminium paint is awesome, I may have to get some of that for my aoshima Thunderbird 5

[morty_3333]

Hi Kallisti!

 

You're really knocking it into submission there, let it know who's Boss!!

 

Great progress, and I'm picking up some pointers, I like the tip with the wire to force the filler in.

 

Sanding the seat down more to get the pilot to fit........... Are You suggesting Sir, that My Rhapsody has a big Bum???? 

 

Keep Sticking!        Cheers,  Pete

[trickyrich]

I've just found this thread and I'm soooooo envious!!! I won't say I'd sell my soul for one of these....maybe my first born!!

 

Gee it looks to be an impressive model, I do like what you've managed to achieve so afr. Resin bubbles.....one of lifespan's bains, I feel you're pain, I have a Collect-Wire Demon F3H-2 and I think I'm down to only a couple of thousand bubble to fill!!

 

As a kid in NZ, Captain Scarlet was one of my favourite shows way back when..... i so want a 1/35th-1/24th SPV!!!