exdraken Posted March 21, 2020 Share Posted March 21, 2020 Very nice progress! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortCummins Posted March 21, 2020 Author Share Posted March 21, 2020 Hi chaps a quick question about AK Extreme if I may, do you apply a clear coat before (and after?) decals? my concern is if microscale sol and/or set cause any reaction with the paint, I'm guessing not, but if you know do tell. I plan to keep weathering to a minimum so I'll be using clay washes rather than my "normal" Tamiya panel liner however if I've "protected" the NMF paint then I may stick with my usual method. I hope you and yours are well and remain so! thanks in advance John(shortCummins) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortCummins Posted March 23, 2020 Author Share Posted March 23, 2020 To start I gave the various undercarriage parts a coat of vallejo 77.701 aluminium. I then gave the “insides” of the gear covers a coat of heavily diluted, 90-10 thinner to paint, Hobby Color H21 ‘off white’. Montex masks were used to protect the wheel hubs and then given a coat of XF-69 NATO black and then sides over-sprayed with a thin coat of XF-85 rubber black. Thin wire was added to the wheel struts, thanks to tweeky for pointing me in the direction of the walk-around. The photos I’ve seen of the landing gear show most of these wines painted? silver, or perhaps there metal tubes, however I’ve decided to leave them black to add a little better contrast. Next I’ll be nailing the smaller bits’n’bobs onto the airframe. until next time as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received. rgds John(shortCummins) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortCummins Posted March 23, 2020 Author Share Posted March 23, 2020 Before I give her a protective coat of varnish I decided to picket a few more panels to suggest differences between panels. I have more vallejo acrylic metal colors than AK Xtreme so for these different panels I used 77.716 semi matte and 77.717 dull aluminium. I decided that the machine-gun panels was a wee bit too light so I use 77.711 magnesium to darken them, they look far darker in the photo than they do in real life, perhaps there too dark now? Once the varnish drys I’ll be adding the missing stuff. until next time as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received. rgds John(shortCummins) 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted March 24, 2020 Share Posted March 24, 2020 No reaction with Micro Sol on mine so far and I’ve applied the decals directly onto the paint. The colour of the undercarriage legs and doors looks just right to me.. John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted March 24, 2020 Share Posted March 24, 2020 Looking good! Still wondering about doing a few panels on mine. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortCummins Posted March 24, 2020 Author Share Posted March 24, 2020 2 hours ago, Biggles87 said: No reaction with Micro Sol on mine so far and I’ve applied the decals directly onto the paint. The colour of the undercarriage legs and doors looks just right to me.. John thanks for the info on the micro sol John, I plan to add some "oil paint" weathering so I need? to have a protective barrier between the oils and the paint/decals. I'm really happy with the undercarriage doors, they look slightly tarnished, I think I'll use this "overspray" method again rgds John(shortCummins) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortCummins Posted March 24, 2020 Author Share Posted March 24, 2020 1 hour ago, Lord Riot said: Looking good! Still wondering about doing a few panels on mine. thanks Lord Riot I've used 4 or 5 different types of aluminium and in truth I'm not sure how much difference it makes, its an awful lot of masking rgds John(shortCummins) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortCummins Posted March 24, 2020 Author Share Posted March 24, 2020 When the aqua gloss had fully cured I added the various small antenna and other bits’n’bobs in preparation for the decals. The antenna were given a coat of primer… …and then brush painted with vallejo 77.701 aluminium I’ll leave the wheels and missiles off until the decals have been applied. Time to unmask the black tail and spine. Next I’ll be applying the decals/transfers/stickers choose the description depending on your age? 😋 until next time as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received. rgds John(shortCummins) 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted March 24, 2020 Share Posted March 24, 2020 Great work. She looks like she's going Mach 2 just sitting on your workbench. Cheers, Andre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dstream Posted March 24, 2020 Share Posted March 24, 2020 Beautiful plane, beautiful model and beautiful finish. Waiting to see more. Greetings, Daniele 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortCummins Posted March 25, 2020 Author Share Posted March 25, 2020 I’m not sure if these are Cartograph decals, I know that they have provided decals for some of the recently released Airfix kits, but so far they’ve behaved themselves (I’m firmly touching wood!). The main concern I have is for the thin black “walk area?” lines on the top of each wing, getting them placed correctly looks to be a bit of a challenge, for me at least. I also note that these lines look as if they have to go over the wing roundels, so firstly I added these roundels. Microscale Micro Set doing its thing… …and after an hour or so… Now I will have to wait for these to go off, I’ve no idea how long this will take as I’ve never placed one decal on top of another, I normally paint “big” aircraft markings and tend to only use decals for the stencils or smaller stuff. I know that some manufactures would have you place the red centre of RAF roundels on top of the blue & white but I’ve not done that so this is a first for me. So in my first decal session I decided to add the tail markings. I must say that the white background to the tiger is very opaque, so if Cartograph didn’t make these then they are still very good. One thing to point out is a mistake on Airfix’s instructions, they would have you use decal no.100 for the ‘A’, however the 100 ‘A’ on the decal sheet is black not white, so I’ve used no.110 from the grey green camo’ version, I think it might be a little bigger than the black version but there’s not a lot in it. Next I’ll be adding the rest of the decals. until next time as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received. rgds John(shortCummins) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted March 25, 2020 Share Posted March 25, 2020 We're at the same stage, I might have to hold off on mine so you don't put mine to shame in the RFI. The black wing lines in mine are only long enough to fit either side of the roundel, they don't go over it. I don't know if that is correct or not. Also, in my old Lightning kit, the 'A' tail code is yellow. Is it meant to be white? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortCummins Posted March 25, 2020 Author Share Posted March 25, 2020 18 minutes ago, Lord Riot said: We're at the same stage, I might have to hold off on mine so you don't put mine to shame in the RFI. The black wing lines in mine are only long enough to fit either side of the roundel, they don't go over it. I don't know if that is correct or not. Also, in my old Lightning kit, the 'A' tail code is yellow. Is it meant to be white? ha ha, I'm not sure mine will put anything to shame apart from my mistakes/bad luck 😛, I really should have tried AK Extreme on a 'paint mule' before a 'live' project!? I think you are correct with the yellow tail letter... however Airfix have seen fit to supply it as either black or white so I've little choice but to opt for the white? for me decaling is the least favourite part of building kits, so it tends to take me more time than it should, I'm guessing that you'll finish quite some time before I do. by the way, thanks for the tip on the walkway lines, I'll give them a go in the morning rgds John(shortCummins) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortCummins Posted March 27, 2020 Author Share Posted March 27, 2020 LordRiot, who is doing an excellent job on his kit… He gave me some welcomed advice on how to get the walkways lines down with minimum fuss, much appreciated sir! However, due to me having a ‘brain fart’ I managed to place the “outer” lines incorrectly, no idea what I was thinking? My excuse, and I’m sticking to it!, is I was so distracted and fed-up with the damage to the roundel that I wasn’t thinking straight and decided the line should be at 90°, I noticed it after the first wing so I made the other one look the same. Not sure how/why this happened, the colours started to run when I applied micro set for the lines, I put too much on and it wandered over the roundel, hen I used a Q-tip to suck up the excess the blue of the roundel started to bleed! don’t you just love decals. Anywho I soldiered on and thankfully didn’t have any more problems, a couple of them broke apart but were easy enough to put back together. There’s a little bit of carrier film showing but I’m hopeful that it’ll disappear when I give it a coat of varnish. Next I’ll be protecting the decals with some varnish and then doing some light weathering. until next time as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received. rgds John(shortCummins) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 I like the contrast between the flaps/ailerons and the main airframe, just right I think. Can’t see any photos past post 109, my interweb is cr*p at the moment. John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortCummins Posted March 28, 2020 Author Share Posted March 28, 2020 34 minutes ago, Biggles87 said: I like the contrast between the flaps/ailerons and the main airframe, just right I think. Can’t see any photos past post 109, my interweb is cr*p at the moment. John thanks John, the flappy things and airframe are noticeably different without being too noticeable, does that make sense? its a shame you can't see the photos past post 109, their really good 😛 stay safe rgds John(shortCummins) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 I can see them now and you’re right, they are good. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortCummins Posted March 29, 2020 Author Share Posted March 29, 2020 At the start of this build I had envisioned doing all sorts of light weathering with oils and panel line washes, now I’ve had enough of this build, not a lot wrong with the kit, with a little care it’ll turn into a fine model, I’ve just lost my mojo for it. So, weathering is going to be at a minimum, I’ve used a couple of Ultimate clay weathering washes, Dark Dirt for the NMF and Concrete for the black painted spine and tail. Even though I’ve lost a bit of interest slathering these clay washes over your pristine paint job always gives me pause for thought! The wheel wells were treated to a Light Dirt wash After leaving the wash to dry, it was polished off leaving it only in the panel lines. Next I’ll be fitting the landing gear and Firestreaks. until next time as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received. rgds John(shortCummins) 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 Very nice!😃 Great actually! The Tiger markings do the rest! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortCummins Posted April 10, 2020 Author Share Posted April 10, 2020 The oleo struts were given a coat of primer and then fixed to the wing struts. These were then brush painted with vallejo 77.701 aluminium. For fitting the landing gear the Airfix instructions are a little on the vague side… It doesn’t help that they’ve mis-numbered/transposed parts 93 & 94, you’ll need to swap 93 for 94 and vice versa. Anywho the various bits’n’bobs were glued vaguely in position… The front wheel assembled. This and the gear doors were then nailed into place. Next I’ll be fitting the Firestreaks and final bits’n’pieces. until next time as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received. rgds John(shortCummins) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortCummins Posted April 10, 2020 Author Share Posted April 10, 2020 Firestreaks were given a coat of UMP/Stynylrez white primer Decals were then applied and a then a clay wash The rocket bodies were then glued to the attachments. I painted the bottom/back of the glass tips black… …and fixed them to the rockets The canopy masks were removed and the canopy glued ‘open’ When I removed the canopy, it was held in place with blue-tac, it pulled out the tightly fitting ejector seat! When I was attaching the Firestreaks I had the aircraft sitting on its tail so that I could access the fuselage sides easier, fitting the missiles and their attaching points was good fun (not), so I reached over to get something, CA or extra thin, and the model fell forward onto its wheels. That was lucky, I thought and then when I picked it up I noticed that the front wheel had disappeared! After some ‘interesting’ language and 10 minutes or so searching I managed to glue the wheel back in place, I’m not convinced its straight!? The pitot tube was replaced with the Master Model version, sooo much better, the limitations of injection moulding against brass machining? There are a couple of things to add, rear stabilisers, anti-collision lights etc. and then I’m finished with this build. until next time as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received. rgds John(shortCummins) 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortCummins Posted April 11, 2020 Author Share Posted April 11, 2020 My thanks to all who contributed with their subject knowledge and encouragement, much appreciated and a credit to this forum. Well I’m glad I’ve finished this build, on more than one occasion I nearly gave up anywho she’s finished and you can see the RFI photos here… until next time as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received. rgds John(shortCummins) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted April 12, 2020 Share Posted April 12, 2020 That’s beautiful John, I’m glad you didn’t give up on it. John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted April 12, 2020 Share Posted April 12, 2020 Well done John, cracking result in spite of the trials and tribulations the paint gave you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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