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Blimey! I was impressed enough with the Vixen but how you’ve managed to coax out a bumper crop of tomatoes this year really takes the biscuit! It’s been an odd year for growing things down here in That London, as well as all the other stuff…

 

Regards,

Adrian

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I'll be very interested in seeing how your decal extravaganza plays out Tony.  If it's any help, the guy that produced Gator Grip is back in business, now producing decals - and he can print white.

It certainly looks like you've broken the back of this build and are starting to enter the home straight.  

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9 hours ago, TheBaron said:

I was going to show you the prinout, if young Marmalade here hadn't decided that they made a perfectly acceptable bed the moment my back was turned....

Marmalade is a beautiful feline and an obvious connoisseur of fine modeling!

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Marmalade is so cute that I have gone all broody. If Mrs Martian could give birth to kittens, the Council would have to put us up in the largest mansion they could find. The model is coming together very nicely as well.

 

Martian 👽

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A great update on the Vixen Tony with some cracking work,  decal design etc fantastic.   Marmalade stole the show though, they are funny creatures, one of our cats would come along and sit or lay down when I would try and read a magazine lying on the floor as a youngster  , great memories. 

Sunflowers look great too. Not had too much success with Tomatoes this year myself  I need one of those green house thingies.

Great work all round. 

Chris

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I don't know about you but over in this parish Autumn suddenly seems to have kicked in emphatically over the course of the last week - the dimming of light levels accompanied by the fungal world festooning old wood around the garden:

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I've Merlin Sheldrake's:

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-sitting on the 'to read' shelf; might be just the point in time to plunge into it...

 

On 10/09/2021 at 19:28, Pete in Lincs said:

Nice decals, cat and Triffid remains. Substantive paint on hold, Copy that.

Didn't Kris Kristofferson say that line in Convoy...Pete? 😁

On 10/09/2021 at 21:04, AdrianMF said:

Blimey! I was impressed enough with the Vixen but how you’ve managed to coax out a bumper crop of tomatoes this year really takes the biscuit! It’s been an odd year for growing things down here in That London, as well as all the other stuff…

It's the first proper season experimenting with the greenhouse we inherited Adrian so am still finding the feet with regards varieties and yields to be quite honest. Tomatoes are getting near the end of their cycle now but we had the first crop of Jalapeños gathered in last evening:

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Since finding out that things like chiles and tomatillos last a long time in the freezer if you double-bag them, I'm trying to be semi-self-sufficient in some of the basics of Mexican cooking, as famille Baron are total hogs for the stuff.

On 11/09/2021 at 00:38, CJP said:

Another engrossing update - going to be an inspiring model of a Sea Vixen

Thanks  - as always - CJ. Still a slog ahead but starting to enjoy the latter stages now.

On 11/09/2021 at 01:34, hendie said:

I'll be very interested in seeing how your decal extravaganza plays out Tony. 

It'll be a variable feast I suspect Alan as once accurately scaled down for 1/72, most of the small text readable in my previous post is reduced to shards and glyphs (paper test print⬇️😞

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The dark text over white paintwork should work and the same with yellow over black. That's great to know about Mr. Gator doing white printing and I've bookmarked that now for future use - thank you!  In this case, as there's so little white text needed now I've got all the colours correctly assigned to various markings that if the light grey scheme doesn't print out as decal, I may just manually add these labels in with a fineline white marker. As an aside, with all the tricks your eyes play when it comes to one colour contrasting against another, it's surprising how dark you can go with grey against a black background and your brain still accepts it as white.

On 11/09/2021 at 01:34, hendie said:

It certainly looks like you've broken the back of this build and are starting to enter the home straight.  

🤪 Just to slow things down a bit I decided to slice the tip off my right middle finger with a scalpel earlier just as I had to head out in the car to collect my youngest from his girlfriend's house. Pro-tip: if you're on your own in the house never buy Tesco plasters as you will bleed to 'kin death trying to tear open their wrappers with one hand. At least I had sufficient time to ponder how close my claret looked to roundel red; if I turn roundel blue later I'll call the doctor....

On 11/09/2021 at 03:21, Space Ranger said:

Marmalade is a beautiful feline and an obvious connoisseur of fine modeling!

He is indeed.

And must be the only cat who gets to bat a 150 gal. drop tank around the carpet...

On 11/09/2021 at 04:37, Martian said:

Marmalade is so cute that I have gone all broody. If Mrs Martian could give birth to kittens, the Council would have to put us up in the largest mansion they could find.

:laugh: He's one of a litter of four kitten that were born in our kitchen a couple of years back Martian when we took their (heavily pregnant) mother in as a stray. Somehow they all decided to stay and live with us...

On 11/09/2021 at 08:35, Fritag said:

Ok so.  This is just one of Tony’s smaller updates and we’ve still got: plunge moulding, glass bead liquid, CAD decals and paint masks :D Just another (extra)ordinary day at the @TheBaron workbench!

Or as my Nan used to say 'He won't bleeding sit still for five minutes...' 🤦‍♂️

(Btw. Nice to see you back Hawking again Steve!)

On 11/09/2021 at 08:35, Terry1954 said:

Fantastic update as usual Tony. I think if I had to pic a favourite bit, it would be seeing that Martel is to get a proper nose job!

It'll probably be one of the last jobs to get done Terry, just to build an air of suspense about things... :laugh:

On 11/09/2021 at 08:42, bigbadbadge said:

Sunflowers look great too. Not had too much success with Tomatoes this year myself  I need one of those green house thingies.

We were lucky to inherit an old 1970s one Chris that will probably remain standing long after the house has fallen down. If you have space and can afford one, they're definitely a great resource mate. :thumbsup2:

 

Where to start then. Well my anticipated 'free run' at getting serious bench time in over the weekend took a dent from having a rake of domestic chores needing doing, so between getting the washing done and aired and self-mutilating it was touch or go whether paint would get applied, but in the end, the first coat of white got eventually applied this afternoon:

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 Masking up was not the straightforward process that I naively (I always approach masking naively for some masochistic reason...), or rather, the bit that I thought would be complicated - wing roundels/lettering:

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 - and nose markings:

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- went on relatively easily. To solve the white decal problem in advance I made some small masks to spray a white undercoat for the 'danger' triangles and 'high voltage' red decals to sit on top of (you can see the negatives applied above):

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I also noticed that after sitting for a few weeks, I needed to make some slight repairs to the canopy masking.

 

An additional delay was caused by discovering an error in my design for the brass wing fences - to whit:

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Upon measuring with a ruler pou can see that my fence design stretches about 5mm too far back  and ends up bisecting the roundel. Looking at my photographic refs. it's plain to see this fault so I was puzzled that I would have made such a stinker and trawled back through the thread to the summer of 2020, when I was working on the wings in Fusion. I wondered had  I'd copied a dodgy maintenance drawing or something, but no, I could find no other answer than that I'm an idiot. It's not a fatal error, just a stupidly obvious one so rectifying matters delayed paint even further this morning.

 

A quick parley with the original design in Illustrator resulted in said fence being re-profile (the red line) to 5mm shorter at the back:

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A silver lining as it let me produce a smoother outline than previously. That new profile then had two uses, first and most obviously I update the photoetch designs later on with this corrected version, and secondly, I was able to fire it onto Washi sheet via the Silhouette in order to give me a profile to sand down the existing PE to the correct shape:

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XJ481 has turned out to be a bit of a mule anyway in terms of reconciling the various parts as a holistic kit so this is pretty much par the course I guess...

 

Don't talk to me about trying to produce straight diagonal masking around compound curves; there's a reason I've no pictures of this part of the process, it's a feckin nightmare to do! :laugh: Anyway. White is on now:

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This is the first coat that I want to rub smooth with W&D and leather, to be followed next time by a lighter finishing coat. paint btw is Tamiya flat white, slightly cut back with medium sea grey.

 

Stores and fittings got their first whitening also:

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A day that ended better than it started, albeit with slightly less finger.

 

Right, got to go and make some red wine gravy as dinner's in the oven. Take care until next time me dears.

:bye:

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

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7 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Didn't Kris Kristofferson say that line in Convoy...Pete? 😁

10/4 good buddy. 

Jalapeños, stencils, fences and real paint. Impressive stuff as always.

Sliced finger is NOT part of a Mexican recipe! Get well soon.

 

 

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OK, I'll wait patiently for the epic Martel bit................ meanwhile it's great to see the paint going on Tony, and re the wing fence, it just goes to show with such issues, things just aren't as simple as black and white 😆 (did you see what I did there) 

 

Terry

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On 12/09/2021 at 19:32, TheBaron said:

Pro-tip: if you're on your own in the house never buy Tesco plasters as you will bleed to 'kin death trying to tear open their wrappers with one hand.

 

Much easier to squirt some superglue on the leaking digit with one hand Tony..... !!

 

(but I am glad it's not just my ham fistedness that causes me such distress when trying to unwrap a plaster!)

 

Vixen continues to impress mightily, it looks fantastic!

 

And Marmalade is brilliant! :)

 

Keith

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The heavy autumnal dews have arrived again as silver:

51492899905_e7c2706b3b_b.jpg

Let's see what those notes tucked under the windscreen say:

 

'Try leaving it parallel to the kerb next time dickh'

......Errr.....

'If your other car's a Porsche how come you dress like sh-'

..Really! The gob on some people... Ah, this is better:

On 12/09/2021 at 19:43, Pete in Lincs said:

10/4 good buddy. 

Jalapeños, stencils, fences and real paint. Impressive stuff as always.

Sliced finger is NOT part of a Mexican recipe! Get well soon.

 

 

Didn't Kris Kristofferson say that in the dubbed Hindi version of Convoy Pete? :hmmm:

On 12/09/2021 at 20:39, Terry1954 said:

OK, I'll wait patiently for the epic Martel bit

I'll try to advance matters in the stores dept. as soon as poss;  looking forward to seeing that bit happen myself tbh! :thumbsup2:

On 12/09/2021 at 20:39, Terry1954 said:

it just goes to show with such issues, things just aren't as simple as black and white 😆 (did you see what I did there)

Your role as Jester in the Wareham Players' panto this year is safe Terry. 😁

On 12/09/2021 at 21:53, giemme said:

Ah, great to see the paint job has started!

And gone backwards Giorgio! :rofl: Sob story to follow....

On 12/09/2021 at 22:33, keefr22 said:

And Marmalade is brilliant!

His mum and sister nab all the warm spots though Keith! 😸

51492225493_5901894961_h.jpg

 

The rest of today's update is a tawdry tail of betrayal and redemption, brought to you by those deceptively kind people at the Sacher-Masoch Foundation.

 

Let us begin.

 

When last we spoke exactly a week ago all was looking acceptable in the paint department; I was optimistic about moving quickly through painting the airframe and into finalizing the decals. Oh was I wrong.

 

A quick gander at said airframe prior to heading off to work on Monday revealed a ghastly flaking (and I don't mean Cadbury's) on the rear engine bay and stbd wing:

51492194018_1e140175cd_b.jpg

Quelle horreur Hastings, mon ami.

 

(The visible grey of the resin is visible above  is the result me having rubbed down the affected areas btw, not the fact that said flaking was due to lack of primer.)

 

We all know that sinking feeling when something like this happens and as a result, Monday was not spent in the best of moods as I mentally ransacked the grey cells as to what might have caused this. That Tamiya white used here was well diluted and wafted on in thin layers so not the kind of craquelure that you get when paint has been applied either too thickly or without the individual layers given enough time to dry between applications. The only too factors I could think of in the end were that either the paint was too old (probably a minimum of 3 years in age, dating from the Iron Chicken days), ore else something to do with humidity as said levels have routinely remained around  85-90% levels over the last fortnight. Either way it was clear that I couldn't trust this white not to continue to cause issues further along, so with bullet firmly gnashed upon, I stripped the entire white side of the airframe back to its bare bones, seen here midway through the process:

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I was sorely tempted to leave it in its stripped 'Sea Vixen by Anselm Kiefer' state as the ghost markings were rather lovely in a Gothic kind of way:

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At some point by Tues/Weds, that side of the airframe was prepped for re-priming, as well as which I also took the opportunity to re-shape the brasswork for the fences to their correct length:

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Masked and freshly primed on Thursday last:

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The wierd thing was that I wasn't particularly angry/angsty at this occurrence: I've had a lot of good luck on this build so far so was probably due a major setback at some point to balance the karmic forces. Also whilst I was was working away of an evening I had on in the background this 1981 classic from the BBC, which I was delighted to rediscovered on the media drive:

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I'm pretty sure that the plot line of this serial is the real reason that @Fritag keeps disappearing up to Shetland, where the locals refer to him as 'The Colonel'...

 

Also back on Monday I'd binned both jars of the Tamiya white and decided to switch brands. I know many people get on fine with it, but I'd always felt it a little 'chalky' and decided it was time probably time to experiment with other brands so ordered  up a couple of bottles of Vallejo Premium 'Blanco', of which I'd read one or two salutary reviews here on the forum.

 

It did indeed behave very nicely, misted on here in about 4-5 thin coats:

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Paint's a hugely personal and subjective thing for everyone in their own methodologies ( as it should be for creative individuals)  of course; in my case here I just found  a really nice smoothness to the way it lays down onto a surface in fine layers (your Martel again Terry):

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I know it's comes diluted ready to spray but I added about 20% water to the mix to thin it further.

 

On something of a roll by yesterday then, I masked up to spray stbd aileron and top/leading edge of the tailplane with EDSG, as appropriate for post-1970:

51492194103_142918f0f2_b.jpg

This was an EDSG mix I'd made myself some time back and thankfully kept sealed airtight. Also received said colour was the rear of the the pilot's canopy: it needs a little tidy along the edges with a cocktail stick and I also need to brush-paint some EDSG over that central frame (which I forgot in the heat of the moment), but otherwise I'm quite happy with the visuals on it for the scale:

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I mustn't forget to that there's a PE demister 'ridge' and front fairing to add to the central windshield area after the canopy is finally in place.

 

Finally this morning I got up early and started work on masking and painting the wing and nose roundels:

51491973961_41822c8105_b.jpg

My method for colour work like this these days has kind of settled on mixing roughly the right hue in thin layers directly onto the aircraft (rather than a couple of opaque layers), constantly taking it across to the window to assess the results in daylight before proceeding further. As visual references I had a number of daylight roundel shots up on the computer screen whilst doing this so that I could flick the eyes back and forth between photos and paint job. Once I think the hue is right-ish for bright daylight, I'll adjust the tone if required with a heavily diluted filter layer of something black/dark. I used NATO black here on this occassion. This is the dog's dinner that I dignify with the term 'mixing process':

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Thinking ahead for once, I sealed up the excess roundel mixes to use later on XN708:

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The Vallejo white behaved itself impeccably in terms of both coverage and interacting with both Oramask and Washi tape:

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I've some touchups to do on the black in one or two places up front, which was not unexpected with the masking having been left in situ on those parts for several days and had been subjected to much finger pressure during stripping and repainting. The underside was another matter as when peeling the remaining Oramasking off of the topside wing, I didn't realize that it had gotten tangled at the wingtip with some Washi tape holding the masking for the serial letters in place on the underside; triumphantly whipping it away resulted in tearing that underside masking off unintentionally fast, with the entirely predictable damage to the lettering:

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I'll cut some more letter masks and do a white respray as penance during the week, at the same time adjusting that 'bulge' in the black/white demarcation across the aircraft's belly.

 

Nose markings worked out fine though, including the white backgrounds for the red triangle decals:

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Going to be a another busy week so the next installment will likely be next weekend again.

 

This has been quietly growing on the kitchen windowsill, some kind of Iris I think silently making a miracle out of soil and water:

51492199518_91ed8d6ca1_b.jpg

:bye:

Tony

 

 

 

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Aah, the trials and tribulations of paint and masking tape. Throw in an extra variable in the form of "what a silly bunt" and the results can be either disturbing or amusing, depending on your sense of humour!

She does look rather special in black and white though!

 

Ian

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2 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Your role as Jester in the Wareham Players' panto this year is safe Terry.

 

Drat, my secret is out. 

 

2 hours ago, TheBaron said:

(your Martel again Terry)

 

Nice to see it putting in a few regular appearances these days.

 

In those last few shots XJ481 looks supreme Tony. It is going to be a stunning scheme on a stunning model. What stripper did you use on the white (acrylic?) paint? It seems to have come off well.

 

Terry

 

 

 

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Ouch Bad luck with the masking/serial issue Tony.  Been there, done that.   It seems we are all having paint issues of one type or another these days.  I've just ordered another bottle of Alclad grey primer - if it has any issues, this will be my last ever alclad primer purchase and will have to seek an alternative option.

Otherwise, she's looking pretty darned good.  Great work on a deceptively simple yet horribly complex demarcation line.

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5 hours ago, Gondor44 said:

That's looking very nice now, other than the under wing serial.

Worms and apples and all that eh... 😁

5 hours ago, Brandy said:

Aah, the trials and tribulations of paint and masking tape. Throw in an extra variable in the form of "what a silly bunt" and the results can be either disturbing or amusing, depending on your sense of humour!

Most of my mistakes are so stupid Ian that laughter really is the only authentic response, leavened of course with a some choice effing and blinding.

 

'Per ardua ad astray'

3 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

Drat, my secret is out. 

 

'Oh no it's not!' Etc., etc... 😄

 

 

 

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>cont.

4 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

What stripper did you use on the white (acrylic?) paint? It seems to have come off well.

Just neat isopropyl alcohol Terry, brushed on liberally and wiped off with kitchen roll in sections before it could evaporate. I was surprised to learn that it also removed most of the Alclad primer as well, which saved me the nerve racking job of using cellulose thinner on a half-painted aircraft to get rid of the latter.

 

That black and white scheme is indeed striking but talk about two colours (or lack thereof) that mercilessly show up any flaw in application....

2 hours ago, hendie said:

Ouch Bad luck with the masking/serial issue Tony.  Been there, done that.   It seems we are all having paint issues of one type or another these days. 

Thus was it written in the Book of Models, 13:7:

'The Lord saw the Baron and saw too that he had not fecked up for a bit. Angered by  such mortal hubris, Jehovah loosed a thunderbolt upon the night that did work to turn the Baron's Flat White into Cream Cheese upon the airframe. At sunrise, the Baron did awaken to a Vexed Vixen, and was brought low, and did utter oaths.'

 

 If nothing else it forced to me try out new paints and make some nice discoveries Alan....💅

2 hours ago, hendie said:

I've just ordered another bottle of Alclad grey primer - if it has any issues, this will be my last ever alclad primer purchase and will have to seek an alternative option.

I've only ever used their black so will be interested to see how you get on with a fresh bottle. 🤞 for you getting a good result.

2 hours ago, hendie said:

Great work on a deceptively simple yet horribly complex demarcation line.

Thanks. There's a wiggle in a couple of places still needs straightening, but nothing major.

1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said:

A very striking scheme Tony   Great job . I hope the pennence work redoing the lifted bits go well.

Cheers Chris. I remasked and repainted after tea earlier, so that job is now sorted thankfully.

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6 hours ago, TheBaron said:

something to do with humidity

Er, you're in Ireland? Hello?

 

32 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Thus was it written in the Book of Models, 13:7:

'The Lord saw the Baron and saw too that he had not fecked up for a bit. Angered by  such mortal hubris, Jehovah loosed a thunderbolt upon the night that did work to turn the Baron's Flat White into Cream Cheese upon the airframe. At sunrise, the Baron did awaken to a Vexed Vixen, and was brought low, and did utter oaths.'

Bless you my Son.

 

Sorry to hear of your paint woes, but the recovery process/plan is looking good.

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1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

4Thus was it written in the Book of Models, 13:7:

'The Lord saw the Baron and saw too that he had not fecked up for a bit. Angered by  such mortal hubris, Jehovah loosed a thunderbolt upon the night that did work to turn the Baron's Flat White into Cream Cheese upon the airframe. At sunrise, the Baron did awaken to a Vexed Vixen, and was brought low, and did utter oaths.'

 

At least you didn't resort to The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. There might have been much gnashing of teeth.

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