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RB-57E - an American MRCA - Finished


Chrisj2003

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More filing and filling to get the AM tail designed for the Italeri kit to fit. May need a better camera to show the subtle ridges that still need to go (this is daylight piccie). 😀 Also every landing gear door has sinkholes or mould pin marks.  Getting there...

Chris

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Back from holiday to find the filling and filing hadn't sorted themselves. 😀

 

Has taken some time to get the fuselage seams sorted; the airbrakes smoothed out; the AM resin tail smoothed in (the Italeri cross section is clearly different from this Airfix kit); the jet pipes sorted; and the nose profile sorted. Wings and tailplanes just added; seems little filling needed on them. Then 3 coats of thinned enamel.

 

And again hobbyphotohost.com has flipped the photos upside down when I've uploaded them and pasted them. :oops: anyone know a solution? Hmmm, seems if I rotate them on hobbyphotohost the image here will rotate after a while...

Chris

 

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Edited by Chrisj2003
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Isn't it annoying when you come back from a break and find that things haven't sorted themselves out and you end up having to do them yourself.

 

Your Canberra is coming along very nicely indeed, great work smoothing everything in. Looks like you should have plenty of nose weight in there, always better to err on the side of caution.

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Week spent getting coats of paint on; bit too quick and made a mess on one wing, not at all nice, will need to leave and sand down and get more coats on.

 

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Nose shaped, just about see flat, filled with liquid steel, and glued on. Seems to balance ok.

Chris

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yeah there's plenty of time.

 

Rather than sanding down you may just be able to wipe off the affected areas. Depending on the paint you use you should be able to use thinner or alcohol to wipe off the paint in the affected areas. You will need to be a bit careful, but it should do the job and not damage any of the panel lines.

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Sanded down; really glad of my sanding sticks, so much better than the old days of paper, and reapplied and that coats good enough. Now leaving time for next coat. Nothing to see. 

 

Chris

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With a bit more patience multiple coats down, and various aerials, doors, canopy etc painted. The underwing probes(?) are shown in red on the best photo I have found on the web (assume I am ok to reference it but not copy?).

 

https://ipmscanberrasig.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=158607088

 

Chris

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finally a dry day yesterday and Humbrol rattle can application of gloss coat overall. Started with underside decals, settled very nicely over raised panel lines, with micro sol/set but silvering. :oops:

 

Hopefully top coat and weathering will hide that a bit and upper surfaces go better.

 

Chris

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These decals are a right PITA.They are settling very well over the raised panel lines but they are probably too thin, the very thin (sub 1mm wide) red no walk boundaries are breaking up a lot. And there’s loads of them. :headbang:

 

Aiming for the very weathered look to retrieve things. 

 

Chris

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Getting close Chris :thumbsup2:.  Have you thought about over-painting the areas of silvering with more black paint?  It usually works for me (I have plenty of experience!).

 

Cheers

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3 hours ago, CliffB said:

Getting close Chris :thumbsup2:.  Have you thought about over-painting the areas of silvering with more black paint?  It usually works for me (I have plenty of experience!).

 

Cheers

Cliff, thanks yes, considering that. I’ll try varnish first on underside. 

 

Chris

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that is a shame about the decals....the curse of the decals strikes again! I can't believe how many builds have suffered from issues with decals.

 

One trick you can try, I use it a lot now and it works a treat in most cases, even with a clear coat on.

 

Go find a really sharp needle (I use an old airbrush one), then carefully p_r_i_c_k (the silly forum software won't like me use the word.... though if you want to have a laugh, use that word in a normal sentence and post :D, anyway back to the subject....

 

........... carefully p_r_i_c_k the surface here the silvering is then brush over a wee bit of decal softening solution. You want it to seep in those tiny holes. give it a moment, then remove the excess with a damp cloth/paper. This should be all that's required to get the decal stick and loose that silver appearance.

 

You can even wet the area first with the decal solution before using the needle, it works both ways. Just test the decal solution on somewhere hidden first as sometimes it can react with the clear coat .

 

now for your enjoyment p_r_i_c_k without the spaces = gentleman's parts :rofl2:

 

Now you can see the fun you can have with it..... please don't use your gentleman parts on the model!  :rofl2:

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Looking fine Chris,

 

I have experienced problems with thin decal lines, usually walkways, breaking up quite a lot lately - several different makes, the most recent being the Airfix ones I used on a Spitfire kit yesterday. I have said this before many times but I sometimes think that the manufacturers' attempts at "realistically thin" decs has maybe gone a step too far. The old Airfix decs of 50 or 60 years ago may have been like linoleum but they stuck well and never broke up. Hopefully one day they wil find a compromise solution which is thin but does not either curl up as you remove it from the backing paper, or stick immediately to the model in spite of a layer of wetting solution, and promptly break up as you try to position it. The thinned varnish/Klear method does work if you are not as clumsy as me - I usually end up with the decs stuck to my fingers!

 

Pete

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3 hours ago, PeterB said:

Looking fine Chris,

 

I have experienced problems with thin decal lines, usually walkways, breaking up quite a lot lately - several different makes, the most recent being the Airfix ones I used on a Spitfire kit yesterday. I have said this before many times but I sometimes think that the manufacturers' attempts at "realistically thin" decs has maybe gone a step too far. The old Airfix decs of 50 or 60 years ago may have been like linoleum but they stuck well and never broke up. Hopefully one day they wil find a compromise solution which is thin but does not either curl up as you remove it from the backing paper, or stick immediately to the model in spite of a layer of wetting solution, and promptly break up as you try to position it. The thinned varnish/Klear method does work if you are not as clumsy as me - I usually end up with the decs stuck to my fingers!

 

Pete

 

Pete, agree with all that; nice looking but too thin. These Airfix ones were breaking up when floating off decal paper or when sliding off or even just with a bubble of water under. Anyway all decals down, slivering sorted and a nice coat of Flory grime on; aiming to get the solid black looking worn (and cover the gaps in the walkways 😀 ).

 

Should get my first GB entry done just in time. 

 

Chris

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So this is done, at last, my first GB entry; it won’t be the last. Thanks to all the encouragement; it would have been shelved without it, particular thanks to the hosts who responded to every post: @modelling minion and @trickyrich (but I am suffering with that mankini image).

 

I struggled with and can't recommend the kit:

- cockpit too narrow and too shallow

- engine nacelles too narrow

- nose had a weird profile

- tail didn't match the AM

- no pitot on windscreen

- no large fixing for aerial wire

- fragile decals

 

But the slow filling and filing, the bad painting, the tail sitting, the breaking of the decals and taking ages to find the end of the extra-fine Usci thread is all down to me. :oops:

     

Chris

 

I didn't get to where I was aiming for (WikiCommons image) 🙁 but the aluminium chipping is intentional on leading edge and windscreen. The Flory grime has toned down the decals but post-varnish is lost on the black. Best pictures in gallery.

 

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Edited by Chrisj2003
Missed bit
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