It's a 'Art wiv an 'Ook: 28 Sqn Audax

[bigbadbadge]

Very impressive, looking good 

 

[TheBaron]

23 minutes ago, hendie said:

It also appears that the alclad can actually be handled without damage which is a bonus. 

Except on Tuesdays.

Have never painted with it on Tuesdays since the Great Tuesday Tape Removal Incident that I don't like to talk about in public.

Much.

 

Looking forwards to seeing your shiny nose.

 

[giemme]

Very different now, hendie  

 

Never tried Alclads, so I can't be of any help here. Of all things I tried though, nothing beats Tamiya spray cans metallics, decanted and airbrushed straight onto plastic - I guess they somewhat blends into the outer plastic layer and remains tough and resistant to handling

 

Ciao

[bentwaters81tfw]

Coming along nicely. I keep looking at my Silver Wings Hart....one day. I have some cotton gloves for handling silver metallics until I can coat them. Saves finger prints.

[CedB]

Yep, I think that looks better too. Nice work hendie  

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Lovely work.  Only you would make an exhaust look authentic by using it as a real exhaust...

[Brandy]

The original would certainly look better for polished panels, but for painted fabric I think you have it spot on with your second effort.

 

Ian

[Pete in Lincs]

Well I need a strong cup of (Yorkshire) tea now after a long and interesting catch up. 

Darned if I can see how this is going to fit onto those rails though.

 

[The Spadgent]

Everything. All of it. The whole nine yards. Love it. 🙌🤩🧐

 

 Johnny.

[Jonners]

I’ve just caught up with the last three weeks’ worth of posts here, and I’m very glad I did. As well as great craftsmanship, Hendie, there are some fantastic ideas that I’ve filed away in my mental ‘must-try-that’ file. I particularly like the brass multi-branch exhaust (I’ve often wondered how to scratchbuild something like that!), and using heat-stained steel to create a heat-stained steel effect is pure genius! Great, clear photos too, which illustrate what you are doing very nicely.

 

Inspirational stuff.

 

Jon

[hendie]

On 10/11/2020 at 4:57 PM, bigbadbadge said:

Very impressive, looking good 

 

ta muchly

 

On 10/11/2020 at 5:00 PM, TheBaron said:

Except on Tuesdays.

Have never painted with it on Tuesdays since the Great Tuesday Tape Removal Incident that I don't like to talk about in public.

Much.

Looking forwards to seeing your shiny nose.

 

glossy neb coming up Tony

 

On 10/11/2020 at 5:13 PM, giemme said:

Very different now, hendie  

Never tried Alclads, so I can't be of any help here. Of all things I tried though, nothing beats Tamiya spray cans metallics, decanted and airbrushed straight onto plastic - I guess they somewhat blends into the outer plastic layer and remains tough and resistant to handling

Ciao

 

Alclad is a funny beast.  Some people love 'em, some hate them, and I swither back and forth.  I love the grey primer, however I do believe they have some quality issues.  The black primer I have peels off in sheets very easily, and the last batch of grey primer is extraordinarily thick compared to previous batches.  The metal finishes I find a bit of a hit or a miss - mostly miss as they just do not appear to be durable to any great extent

 

On 10/11/2020 at 5:57 PM, bentwaters81tfw said:

Coming along nicely. I keep looking at my Silver Wings Hart....one day. I have some cotton gloves for handling silver metallics until I can coat them. Saves finger prints.

 

That SW Hart looks like a nice kit

 

On 10/12/2020 at 4:39 AM, CedB said:

Yep, I think that looks better too. Nice work hendie  

 

cheers Ced

 

On 10/12/2020 at 6:48 AM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Lovely work.  Only you would make an exhaust look authentic by using it as a real exhaust...

 

and only you would make an a/c look covered in rivets by covering it in rivets Crisp.  Sometimes the obvious is just so, well, obvious

 

On 10/12/2020 at 11:50 AM, Brandy said:

The original would certainly look better for polished panels, but for painted fabric I think you have it spot on with your second effort.

Ian

 

until it was gloss coated...

 

On 10/12/2020 at 2:02 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

Well I need a strong cup of (Yorkshire) tea now after a long and interesting catch up. 

Darned if I can see how this is going to fit onto those rails though.

 

 

On 10/12/2020 at 6:47 PM, The Spadgent said:

Everything. All of it. The whole nine yards. Love it. 🙌🤩🧐

 Johnny.

 

Thanks Johnny.  Did anyone tell you we went metric back 1971?  You should look into it - it's quite a handy system 

 

On 10/13/2020 at 3:33 AM, Jonners said:

I’ve just caught up with the last three weeks’ worth of posts here, and I’m very glad I did. As well as great craftsmanship, Hendie, there are some fantastic ideas that I’ve filed away in my mental ‘must-try-that’ file. I particularly like the brass multi-branch exhaust (I’ve often wondered how to scratchbuild something like that!), and using heat-stained steel to create a heat-stained steel effect is pure genius! Great, clear photos too, which illustrate what you are doing very nicely.

Inspirational stuff.

Jon

 

Thanks Jon, it's always good to know other folks find my (generally stolen) ideas useful.

 

I haven't updated this thread for a while but I have still been beavering away in the background. Actually, not quite beavering, more like hamstering.

The nose got a coat of gloss black.

 

 

Though try as I might, I just could not get a good gloss finish.  My fault though.  I omitted to mask the nose when I sprayed the second coat of silver on the fuselage and the Alclad dull aluminum has a very rough feel and I think the grain has affected the gloss finish.

I did try polishing it back, but I was in danger of losing some of that exquisite detail so stopped before I did any damage and tried spraying another coat of gloss black.

 

 

Did it improve things?  Not really I have to say.  I was a bit miffed with myself for this - it would have been so easy to mask up before spraying and now I pay the price of trying to shortcut things. Oh well, we live and learn.

 

Then came the unmasking to see how good/bad/indifferent the black looked against the rest of the aircraft and... crap!  The tape lifted a huge chunk of paint right in at the wing root. 

 

 

and on a couple of spots underneath

 

 

Now I was in the do I mask it up again and try and fix it now and is more paint going to lift, or do I leave it until later and try then loop.  I know I should probably have stopped and tried to fix it right then and there but stupidity is one of my strong points so I carried on.

I know someone is going to ask why I didn't just go straight from the gloss black to metal finish without removing the masking - I considered that, but I wasn't sure if there might be a witness line of black paint around the metal finish, so I unmasked and masked again - making sure the masking tape was ever so slightly back from the gloss black so that none would be showing when it was finally painted.

 

I had purchased some new Alclads and I thought I would give their super shiny polished aluminum a go (go)

Surprisingly it turned out quite well

 

 

There's still a little bit of orange peeling there due to the dull aluminum grain underneath, but on the whole, it's quite satisfactory

 

 

That metal finish was applied about two weeks ago now and was not touched in the interim.  This weekend I found that when handling it, the finish was actually very durable.  I could even rub it with a cloth and the Alclad didn't evaporate before my very eyes. Now I don't know if any of that is down to my gloss black not being very glossy, or whether Alclad have actually produced a durable paint for once.

Now the test was to come - a gloss coat!

Previously I have found that you can get a really nice looking finish with Alclad, but when you apply a gloss coat, the gloss somehow changes the appearance and makes it less metal-like/shiny.  I've also found that the Aqua Gloss (which Alclad recommend) isn't very durable either.

This time I opted for Mr Color GX100 Crystal Clear

 

 

I even managed to keep most of the detail.

 

 

and then I ran out of gloss before I could finish the rest.  

 

I've also been working on some custom decals for this. And for the Camel. And for the F2b (2nd attempt). I hope to be ordering those soon

 

and now back to your regularly scheduled programming

 

 

 

[giemme]

Fascinating metallic perusals - glad it turned out to your liking  I like that too      

 

Ciao

[CedB]

Shiny!

Good stuff hendie  

[Terry1954]

Metallic trials and tribulations that turned out very well indeed. That cowling area looks the biz.

 

Terry

[Pete in Lincs]

Put me down for a big like too. Oh, and hash browns. 😋

[TheBaron]

A healthy glossy nose. 👏

Glad the Alclads cladded so well for you Alan.

[The Spadgent]

Very nice. Down to the last millimetre. 
(better?) 🤣

 

seriously though. The gloss, is it a specific product for metallics? I do use the Vallejo one but it’s a bit soft / rubbery in final form. Is the Mr colour good? And do you brush it on or spray?

 

Sooo many questions. I just gots to know.  🤓🥳

 

Johnny.

 

 

[Hamden]

 

Really nice metallic looking nose there, a very good contrast with the fabric covered fuselage

 

  Stay safe          Roger

[bigbadbadge]

Lovely shiney finish. Looks fantastic 

[perdu]

That looks...  metallic and very nicely so too.

 

I am finding Mr Colour/Color paints are wooing me away from Vallejo (which always 'feels' too soft to me), their Gloss is going on my 'post lockdown, dash to the LMS' shopping list after seeing it in operation here.

 

Thanks for another fine lesson H.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hendie]

14 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

seriously though. The gloss, is it a specific product for metallics? I do use the Vallejo one but it’s a bit soft / rubbery in final form. Is the Mr colour good? And do you brush it on or spray?

 

Johnny,  the GX100  is not specific to metallics and is just a "standard" gloss. This is the first time I have used it on a metallic finish so there was a small furry animal sacrifice before I began laying down the gloss just in case 

I was very impressed with how it sprays as well as how it hardens up.  I use it with Mr Color Leveling Thinner at a nice and easy 1:1 ratio for airbrushing.

 

 

I don't even know why I have it to be honest. I can't remember buying it.  I am in the process of switching over to the Mr Hobby Aqueous range so maybe I bought it by accident?

I tried the Testors gloss finishes and they never sprayed very well (for me). I liked Alclad purely for the reason they sprayed right out of the bottle, but the Aqua Gloss never gave me a uniform finish no matter how I tried to spray it - it never seemed to truly harden, and it reacted with the Micro-Set/Sol sometimes turning white.  The Mr Color/Mr Hobby ranges are not the easiest to get here but are certainly worth tracking down. A quick check shows that they appear readily available at reasonable cost in the UK (an 18 mL bottle of GX100 for £3)

The only downside to the Mr Color/Hobby range I have found so far is that you have to put the lids on tight or the carrier will evaporate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Brandy]

If you can't get them in the US, think about buying online and get yourself a Shop and Ship account. I've saved a small fortune in shipping costs with them!

Basically the supplier sends the goods to an address in their country, (that also gets the rest of us around the often seen with US suppliers "shipping only within the US") with your account code on it, and Aramex ship it to you at very reasonable prices. 

 

Ian

[hendie]

Wow. It's been a while since I've been in here it seems.  Don't worry though, this build has not been forgotten, I just got diverted with other riggy things.

 

To start this weeks episode I began with the usual disaster at hand.  While spraying a clear coat and wearing gloves, I did not notice that some of the clear coat got onto my fingertip and when I held the Audax by the nose to spray the fuselage, all went swimmingly well, until I tried to put the Audax down...

 

 

dammit dammit dammit  

More repair work.  Initially I tried polishing it out with 12000 grit micromesh, but some of the black undercoat started showing through. Okay, spray again.  However, no matter how I tried, I always got a dull patch at the edge of the spray. After about three attempts, I got to this stage.  It's not perfect by any means but other than take everything back down to the plastic, I can't get it any better.  Once the cabane struts are in place I think it will look okay, though I'm a bit peeved with myself for being so stupid (yet again)

 

 

Tail stuff got glued in place with a slight deflection.

 

 

then the job I'd been dreading - masking up for the repair work where the alclad had lifted with the previous round of masking tape.

 

 

I'm pleased to report that the surgery was successful and no more paint lifts.

After that, a clear coat was laid on and it was time to start with the transfers.  True to form, as soon as I cut out the first roundel and looked at positioning it, I realized that they were too large - by a significant amount.

These roundels reach from the leading edge to the trailing edge.

 

 

As you can see in this shot, the roundel is well clear of the aileron surface.

 

 

That left me with a choice - do I go with the oversize roundels? Or... I had some Xtradecal roundels in the spares box, and in there I found some 40" roundels - but of a much darker color.

In the end I went with the Xtradecal option as I couldn't find anything online of the right size/color combination.

The first roundel went on easy, but on the second roundel... buggrit.

 

 

Oh well. These things are sent to try us.  It's annoying, but an easy repair.

Then it was on to the underside roundels, and whaddya know... Extradecal only supply 2 of the 40" roundels.

In a remarkable stroke of luck, I found another shot of a 28 Sqn aircraft where the lower roundel is just visible - and it approaches the leading edge - so I went for the next size up and here we are.

 

 

A bunch of W/T stencils were stuck on, along with a 'first aid', and another W/T at the gunner position

 

 

and there we have it folks, a bit of a disaster, a sort of recovery, another little hiccup, and now I'm just waiting on the custom decals to arrive before I can proceed any further.

 

If anyone knows of a set of roundels in the right colors and dimensions, let me know, as I may still change these.  FYI the period I am modeling is just prewar and I believe the roundels at that time were a lighter blue ? Though the 28 Sqn photos I have come across show that their a/c were definitely not standard as compared to other Audii

 

 

 

[CedB]

Of course we wouldn't have known, or at least I wouldn't, if you hadn't told us!

 

I couldn't see the problem with the finger prints either - must be the wine…

 

Looking good from here  

[perdu]

I have had a look at various sources about the 'tween wars roundel colours, seems fairly clearly cut.

 

The colours in use look to have darkened during the early days of the RAF in WW1 and most different colours on photos seem to be attributed to Ortho and other film emulsion differences.

 

So to me yours look good and right

 

Where is that fresh worm can when you need it?